


Eight is the key

by Chaneta



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - different retcon, Caliginous Romance | Kismesis, Flushed Romance | Matesprits, Karkat Swearing, Meteorstuck, Multi, POV Alternating, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Quadrant Vacillation, Retcon, do I need a tag for that? it's Karkat
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-08 09:07:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 160,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26969491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chaneta/pseuds/Chaneta
Summary: Sometimes, a simple sentence can change everythingM4K3 SOLLUX ST4Y(OR K4RK4T W1LL D13)
Relationships: Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas, Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam, Sollux Captor/Karkat Vantas
Comments: 44
Kudos: 81





	1. WHAT THE FUCK, EGBERT?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there, let's try a long multichapter fic on a relatively new fandom with changing POVs. I mean, why not?  
> Seriously, this is going to be a long ride (it gets bigger every time I think about it) and I am writing as I go so I can't promise regular updates, you have been warned. If you are still here, thank you. This fic is an AU where Sollux stays in the meteor and how it causes changes for everyone and everything.  
> The story and characters are based on Homestuck, so I don't own anything or gain anything. In this chapter, there will be conversation's segments extracted literally from episodes 7379 to 7388 (Meteor year 1)  
> As always, feedback and comments are cherished!

Karkat had never been so scared in his life. He looked around himself. In front of him there were four ectobiology devices, with three tubes each, and a Sgrub computer terminal with twelve screens. The ectobiology lab. Half a perigee ago in that same spot, Karkat created 24 wigglers: 12 of them being himself and his friends, and the others their respective ancestors. It had been a daymare then; he had thought that it was for sure the worst moment in his life. Now it was an almost fond memory compared to his current situation. Past-Karkat was so naïve and self-centred.

Sollux was sitting on the floor near the terminal, probably still talking to Terezi. He was alive. He looked horribly weak and he was blind now, but he was alive. They had lost so many friends in such a short time, he didn’t know what he would have done if Sollux had died too. Less than an hour ago Eridan had suddenly gone crazy and decided to kill everyone. If that alone wasn’t enough, moments later Karkat began getting horrible messages from Gamzee about murder and the dark carnival. He had blocked him immediately, but short after he kept trolling him using the account of some of the other trolls. He had had to block almost everyone else from texting him then, it was too much. How many of them were still alive? Feferi and Kanaya were dead, he was sure of it, he had checked it himself. Equius and Nepeta had stopped answering his messages long time before Gamzee used their accounts to bully him, so they were probably dead by now too. Who knew where Vriska was.

And now, apparently, Tavros was also dead and Terezi was obsessed on blaming Vriska for everything. She was probably right regarding Vriska killing Tavros, but Karkat had been there when Eridan killed Feferi and Kanaya. He stood there doing nothing while someone he had considered a friend knocked out Karkat’s best hatefriend, murdered his own ex-moirail and matesprit interest, destroyed their only matriorb and killed Kanaya. He was there and he did nothing. He didn’t know why Eridan hadn’t culled him on the spot too, which by the way would have been well deserved. Maybe he had forgotten that Karkat was there at all. Because, as he already said, he did NOTHING.

What kind of leader stays there and does nothing while his friends and hatefriends are being murdered? What kind of troll does that? He had been so scared, he still was, but the alternative was even scarier. Gamzee and Eridan were still out there while Terezi and Vriska were too busy fighting each other to realise the real danger. Vriska was crazy and she had a tendency for murder and revenge cycles, but for once it had not been her. She had probably killed Tavros, but they had a complicated past. It was not excusable, but it could be explained. She had nothing to do with Feferi, Kanaya, Equius and Nepeta’s deaths though. And Terezi was not listening to him, she was probably trying to cull Vriska for her crimes right now. It was a bad idea for a hundred of reasons, she was wrong, and she was going to get herself hurt or killed. Even if she ended victorious, she will need to cull Vriska to accomplish that, and that alone was a really bad idea. Karkat didn’t know exactly what had happened in the past between them, but everyone knew that they had been best hatefriends for sweeps before the incident with Tavros and Aradia. Regardless of the reason, culling an old friend was hard. He didn’t want Terezi to suffer that, he preferred to avoid more dead trolls, but he would kill Vriska himself if that will mean that Terezi wouldn’t have to.

“Sollux, I have to go,” Karkat said. “Stay here and block the transportalizer with something big when I’m gone so you are safe.”

Their ectobiology lab was localised in the section of the meteor that Karkat had declared as his. It was not the biggest room, but it was reclused and the only point of access was through a transportalizer. There were a bunch of them everywhere in the meteor. Nobody knew how those worked but they figured out pretty quickly that standing on the platform for too long would eventually result in being pushed away when the next troll transported in. Based on that, Equius realised that if there was something big enough on the platform that could not be pushed away, it blocked out teleportation from the other side too. That had been useful when needing private time. Everyone had chosen a section of the meteor for their exclusive use and Karkat had been meticulous in choosing an area with only one entrance that could be blocked if needed. It was not the biggest area, but he used to live in a small hive so it was more than enough. There was a lot of big stuff in this room that could be used to block the transportalizer, and Sollux could easily use his psionics to move them. It could work.

“What the fuck, KK?” Sollux protested. “I’m not letting you go there alone.”

“Shut up, duchebag! I didn’t ask for your point of view,” Karkat answered. “I am only telling you the reality of what is going to happen now: I am going to leave, you will block the transportalizer and then stay here until I tell you that it’s fine to go out.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are! I was not asking! It was not a question, there was no surprise noodle or any change in my tone to indicate that my sentence was a question at all!” Karkat insisted. “It’s not debatable, it’s a reality, a fact, an order from your leader if you prefer.”

“Bugwinged shit, close up your fucking squawk gaper already! I am not staying here while you go there to play idiot hero fighting the fish-face and the fucking crazy clown!” Sollux said while getting up from the floor. “They will cull you the moment they see you, what do you think you can do?”

“Terezi is out there and she doesn’t know what the fuck is happening!” Karkat screamed. “She is not listening to me and she is convinced that she has to cull Vriska for her stupid justice!”

“Sounds good for me, let spider-troll die, I should have killed her myself sweeps ago!” Sollux refuted.

“She is wrong! She thinks that Vriska murdered everyone and that’s why she wants to cull her but when she realises that she was an innocent all along she will feel horrible!” Karkat tried to explain. “You know how is Terezi with her stupid justice! I understand that a lot happened since then, but they used to be best hatefriends and I know Terezi. She will regret it eventually and it will affect her terribly.”

Sollux looked away for a moment, apparently without any comment to refute that.

“What about Tavros? I’m sure that she was the one killing him and even if she didn’t, she still deserves to die for what she did to Aradia.”

Karkat’s anger dissipated. Sollux was right, Vriska had done terrible, horrible things in the past and she probably killed Tavros for real this time. He had been tempted to kill her himself once for what she did to their group. For what she did to Sollux. She made Tavros jump out of a cliff and he ended up paralysed. In response to that, Aradia used her powers to summon the spirits of the trolls that Vriska had killed in the past and made them haunt her.

That made the situation escalate to the point where Vriska mind-controlled Sollux and used him like a toy to murder Aradia as vengeance. Perigees after that, Terezi also tried to revenge her friends for her loved justice, managing to seriously hurt Vriska, but ending up blind in retaliation. Vriska was the one to begin that situation, but when anyone else tried to take revenge on her, she retaliated harder and more viciously every time. She was dangerous, true, but she was also hard to kill and seeking vengeance on her never ended well.

“She might deserve it but there are so few of us now, I don’t want anyone else dead,” Karkat insisted. “I have to stop them before they kill each other and warn them about Gamzee and Eridan.”

Sollux’s thinkpan turned to him again, probably trying to meet him straight on, but he failed and ended up looking at an empty space on Karkat's right. That more than anything reaffirmed Karkat’s determination to go alone. Sollux was in no shape to fight. He had been blinded less than an hour ago and Karkat hadn't seen him use his psionics even once since he woke up. After the burnout of his fight with Eridan, he would not be surprised if Sollux was incapable of using his powers anymore. And without his psionics, Sollux was the weakest of them all.

“Sollux, you just got blinded and you are hurt. You probably can’t keep fighting, you need to stay here and heal,” Karkat tried again, using his calmest voice. “You are a liability right now.”

Oh, fuck! He shouldn’t have said that, or at least not using _those_ words. Sollux’s face turned shock pale for a moment before getting a yellow tint on his cheeks and around his glance nuggets. His lips moved back to show his teeth threateningly and an angry snarl sounded in the empty room. Even a bit of electricity jumped between Sollux’s fingers. Fuck, he was really angry.

“DON’T YOU DARE PITY ME, KARKAT!!” screamed Sollux with a growl in his voice. “I can destroy this meteor with you inside in a second! I can send you to the core of Skaia with a gesture! You are nothing next to me! DON’T. YOU. DARE!!”

Yeah, in normal circumstances he would be right. Sollux was the most powerful psionic of their generation, probably one of the bests since the appearance of the first troll in history. But those were not normal circumstances. He was severely hurt, almost mortally, he was blind now which probably meant that he had no gander bulb lasers anymore, and he had problems with his psionics. Even in that exact moment Karkat could only see a small spark of energy jumping between Sollux’s fingers gently, in contrast with the intensity of his furious anger. If he had been fine, Karkat would have been dead or at least injured already.

Sollux didn’t have his psionics now or they were at least severely weakened, and he was nothing without them. He used his powers for everything, and he exclusively fought with them. He didn’t even walk most of the time! If Sollux went out like that he would be killed. Karkat pitied him, but not in the way that Sollux was accusing him of. It was purely a platonic kind of pity.

“It’s not like that! Of course, I don’t pity you like that!” Karkat protested. “I would have to be sponge-dead to pity YOU, you feculent shithole!”

“Fuck off, nook whiffer!” Sollux replied automatically. “At least I’m not a pale slut for everything that breathes like you!”

“Take that back!” Karkat answered, feeling his blood beginning to boil with anger. “It’s not my fault if you have the social skills of a hard-shell reptilian land-beast in a deserted island in the middle of nowhere! The rest of us have the capacity to care for others without falling into a conciliatory quadrant!”

“Like you did with Gamzee and Eridan?!” Sollux argued. “Good job deciding to take care of the most deranged of our group for sweeps, only to let them go in simultaneous killing sprees at the end!”

“SHUT UP!!”

That… that had not been Karkat’s fault, right? Neither Gamzee nor Eridan had been his moirail, so he was not responsible for their acts. But it was true that he had something with Gamzee that could be similar to a moirallegiance. It was never official, they never talked about it in those terms, but they had been friends for sweeps and he always felt that he could talk with Gamzee about anything. A small part of him had hoped that once they met in person they would end up validating their relationship, but in the end they never did.

Eridan, on the other prong, already had a moirail, so it wouldn’t have been appropriate of Karkat to even try. Even if Eridan thought of Feferi more as a matesprit than a moirail. However, Eridan had been trying to talk with Karkat about his feelings after Feferi broke up with him, but Karkat never had the time or patience to deal with it. What would have happened if Karkat had talked with Eridan before the shit hit the fan? Gamzee going crazy was probably inevitable, but maybe if Karkat had talked to Eridan earlier he could have convinced him to not give up so easily. Maybe he could have stopped him before he went berserker on Sollux, Feferi and Kanaya. Maybe they would still be alive if Karkat had managed better his relationships.

“KK?” he heard Sollux calling him, but he was too busy remembering every conversation with Eridan, trying to see where he could have done things differently. “Come on KK, stop it, I know what you are thinking.”

“You are right,” Karkat whispered. “If I had taken Eridan’s situation more seriously I could have stopped him, this is my fault.”

“What?! No! KK, that’s not what I meant!” Sollux protested. "I didn't meant anything! I was just talking nonsense!

“It’s my fault. Feferi and Kanaya are dead because of me,” Karkat muttered, horrified. “It’s all my fault!”

“It’s not. My demise was absolutely not triggered by your acts in any way, Karkat Vantas,” replied a new voice.

Karkat jumped and turned back instantly to the source of the soft voice. Near the transportalizer in the far corner was Kanaya. She was standing on her strut pods with an elegant stance, a large violet scarf dyed green with blood bandaging the wound in her torso, and a strange light on her skin. She was alive, Kanaya was alive.

“Who is… ?” Karkat heard Sollux ask. “Maryam?”

Karkat didn’t even try to stop himself. Releasing a happy scream he run to her with the vague idea of doing something as ridiculously embarrassing as hugging her. She was alive, Kanaya was alive! He didn’t understand how that was possible, he had been so sure that she was dead, but he didn’t care. She was here now and that was the only thing that mattered. Just then, Kanaya disappeared from his sight in the blink of an gander nugget. He felt something pass near him on his right side, but he couldn’t see more than a flash of movement. He stopped himself and turned to his right. Kanaya was there, near the back wall, several steps away from him.

“Kanaya?” whispered Karkat.

Now that he had forced himself to stop, he could detect some things in his friend that he hadn’t seen before. He already noticed her serious injury and the strange luminescence in her skin, but somehow he hadn’t processed that information, too busy being happy about her being alive. Now his thinkpan was screaming at him about that, and he was detecting other subtle changes in his friend’s body. Kanaya had always been an elegant, composed troll that kept her body and face’s expressions neutral and almost cold. Now, however, she looked frantic. Her glance nuggets were unusually bright, moving between Sollux and him repetitively, and she looked hungry and scared; almost feral. Karkat realised with a jolt that his friend had violet blood mixed with the green lipstick in her lips and her teeth looked sharper than usual. Higher speed, bright glance nuggets, glowing skin, ferocity, blood, and the fact that she was very dead half an hour ago. There was only one possible explanation for that, even if it was ridiculous.

“Kanaya, are you a rainbow drinker now?” he asked, feeling stupid for even thinking of it.

“What the fuck are you talking about, KK?” Sollux protested, apparently lost.

“I… I think I am,” Kanaya answered in a low voice.

“Wait, seriously?” Sollux asked again, being ignored by everyone else.

Karkat breathed slowly and deeply. Kanaya was a rainbow drinker. She was a mythological undead creature that was supposed to only exist in trashy novel fantasies for stupid hormonal four-sweep old wigglers with no concept of quality books. Never mind that, he needed facts. Everyone knew that rainbow drinkers drank troll blood, that was the origin of their name after all, and in all those books it was stressed the dangerous blood-thirst after being transformed from dead to undead. Not that he had read any of those horrible books, it was only common knowledge. He didn’t know if Kanaya had drunk any blood already but that could become a problem later.

“Do you need… Kanaya, do you need blood?” Karkat asked from his position, far from her.

“I… I drank a bit before. I did not have the intention to do it, but I was starving and Feferi was right there, and before I grasped what I was doing I was already indulging myself with her blood in my mouth,” Kanaya confessed with a scared voice. “Did… did I kill her?”

“No! No, she was dead already, I checked. Eridan killed her,” Karkat quickly corrected. “I… I thought you were dead too. You WERE dead. I checked it and you were dead, Kanaya.”

Karkat forced himself to stop talking, trying to forget the weal of sadness inside him when thinking of that moment. A stressed sound came out of his chest before he could contain it. Oh, fuck, that was embarrassing.

“Oh, Karkat, I’m so sorry,” he heard Kanaya whisper, and he saw her moving a step to the front before stopping. “I’m so regretful you had to see that.”

“Holy fuck, you are serious,” Sollux exclaimed then. “For real? A fucking rainbow drinker?!”

“Sollux, you can’t see it, but her skin is glowing like a fucking lightbug,” Karkat explained.

“Sollux? What happened to you?” Kanaya asked. "Your lookstubs!"

“Oh, it's nothing. I just lost a duel against Eridan. You were there, right? The bastard knocked me out and now I’m blind,” Sollux summarized. “It’s a bit embarrassing actually, I totally underestimated him. I will kill him for sure next time.”

“Oh, I am afraid I already took that liberty myself,” Kanaya apologized. “I couldn’t absolve him for what he did to Feferi, and for annihilating the matriorb.”

Wait, what? Eridan was already dead? Karkat felt a bit guilty for the surge of relief that filled him at hearing that. What Eridan had done in the computer room had scared him, he had looked at his glance nuggets the moment he killed Feferi and Kanaya, and he didn’t see anything more than coldness and disdain in them. He could still remember the silly, emotional confused troll that once was his hatefriend and he felt horrible that he was gone. Yeah, Eridan was dangerous and he had done stupid things, but he had been his hatefriend. Maybe Sollux was right, maybe he should try to stop platonically pitying everyone, especially the ones that didn’t deserve it.

“Eridan is dead, then?” Sollux asked. “Not that I'm complaining about it, he was a jerk and he murdered Feferi.”

“What about Gamzee?” Karkat decided to ask. “Have you found him?”

“I haven’t encountered him yet. Eridan and Vriska were battling on the surface of the meteor a few minutes ago when I found them, but Gamzee was not there,” the rainbow drinker explained. “I actually went back inside searching for him, but then I discovered a trail of golden blood and tracked it here. I was fearful that Sollux might have perished on us, too.”

“Wait, what about Vriska?” he asked, noticing how Kanaya had avoided that subject.

“I punched her out of the way before culling Eridan, she was still nearby when I went inside.”

“Seriously?” Sollux laughed. “I would have loved to see that, it’s a shame that I’m blind now.”

Eridan was dead, Vriska was fine but Gamzee was still on the loose. And Terezi was still unaccounted, too.

“Terezi is convinced that Vriska murdered everyone, she was looking for her, trying to _‘impart justice’,_ ” Karkat said. “We have to stop her, there have been enough dead trolls already”

At that, Kanaya’s body went stiff, which made Karkat realise that his friend had been tensed up at the beginning but had relaxed gradually during their conversation. Well, she was probably self-conscious that she was not a normal troll anymore. Not that Karkat gave two fucks about that, he had not been a normal troll since the moment he hatched from his egg.

“I come across Terezi on my path here,” Kanaya confessed. “I might have accidentally knocked her out for a bit. She will probably be on her way to Vriska by now.”

“Woah, wait a moment! What do you mean with _‘accidentally knocked her out’_?” Karkat exclaimed. “How is possible to knock out someone by accident? Did you crash into her at lightspeed and hit her directly in her sponge? Did you appear out of nowhere and made her faint when she saw you? Nah, that one doesn’t make any sense, she can probably smell you faster than you move. Do you smell so bad now that she fainted? Is that a side-effect of being an undead?”

“Bugwinged shit! Shut your fucking seed flap for two seconds, KK! The multiverse will appreciate the opportunity to think quietly for two dammed seconds,” Sollux protested, putting a prong over Karkat's lips. He had somehow moved until he was next to Karkat without him realising it.

“I bit her,” Kanaya confessed.

That was new and weird. Karkat tried to say something, but Sollux still had a prong covering his talk blaster. He tried to move his thinkpan backwards to free himself, but the troll put his other prong on the back of his thinkpan, preventing his escape. He could probably free himself with pure strength but he was used to fighting against Sollux’s psionics and didn’t want to overdo it now that he didn’t have that automatic defence anymore. Karkat looked at him sideways and contemplated if it was a good idea to kick or elbow-punch him away. Sollux’s shirt still had yellow blood in some spots and his glance nuggets were completely black. Yeah, probably better to not be too aggressive with the wounded troll for now. Kanaya was still speaking in a faster way than usual.

“I did not mean to do it!” she excused herself. “I did not even realise what I was doing until it was happening. I could restrict myself with Vriska, but I presume that I was still pretty thirsty and the confrontation with Eridan did not improve the situation," she explained. "But she was in good condition when I left! She was only unconscious, I checked! I even mended her neck before departing!”

Terezi was fine and out of the way for the moment. Which gave them some time but probably not much. He looked at Kanaya, she seemed distressed about the situation, which was understandable. She had just died and transformed into something unknown, it would be strange if it was not stressful for her. Maybe he should talk to her about it. Wait, no, he was doing it again, he was pitying someone unnecessarily again. Sollux was right, he was a pale slut and it had to stop. He licked the prong still over his talk blaster and almost laughed at the scandalised sound that Sollux made. The other troll let him go finally so Karkat counted that round as won.

“It’s fine, Kanaya, I’m sure you didn’t hurt her,” he told her. “Don’t worry about it, you were starving, and your diet changed suddenly, it’s not like you could help yourself. It was an emergency, that’s all.”

Kanaya was looking at him with a strange expression in her face, she seemed almost surprised to hear him say that. Karkat began moving towards her. It was harder than it should, there was a part of his thinkpan that was screaming for him to go in the opposite direction, to run away from her, telling him how dangerous she was. He ignored the stupid, scared voice in his thinkpan, like always.

“Are you still hungry?” he asked. “Do you need more blood?”

“I am still a bit hungry but I will survive, I believe.” she answered quickly before continuing with doubt in her voice. “Are… are you actually offering me yours?”

Karkat blinked. He hadn’t even really thought about the specifics, but it made sense, right? Kanaya needed blood and she could take it without killing anyone. And more importantly, she was his friend. He was not going to let her starve when there was an easy solution. There was also Gamzee to consider, he was still out there in a rage fit and having a rainbow drinker at her peak power would be a great help if they ended up fighting him.

“I guess I am, if it’s not too weird for you,” Karkat replied. “Not that I’m looking forward to it because, hello pain and bleeding out for no good reason, and there's also the thing with my blood that I don’t know if it will affect you somehow. I mean, is not that I don’t want to, but I don’t want to make you sick or something like that. Can rainbow drinkers get sick? Anyway, what I mean is that… “

“Aaaaargh!” Sollux exclaimed from somewhere behind him. “Will you shut up if I’m the one giving blood to Kanaya?" he asked, clearly exasperated with Karkat's rambling. "Thinking about it, probably it will be better if I’m the one doing it. It’s not like losing a bit more of blood is going to make a difference at this point, and yours is too fucked up to be useful anyway.”

“What the actual fuck, Sollux?!” Karkat protested. “This is not a fucking competition! Scratch that out, it IS a competition, and I was the first one to offer, so it’s too late for you. I'm already at the final line, I won fair and square, so shut up and go back! And stop touching me!”

“I’m not trying to touch you, bulgeface, I’m trying to reach for Kanaya!”

“She is in the opposite direction, you fucker!”

“I’m BLIND, remember?”

“Are you serious?” Kanaya asked with a soft voice. “Both of you, you are being serious about this, right? You… you really do not mind what I am now.”

Karkat turned to look at Sollux and he found him shrugging and making weird faces to the wall behind him. The fucker was probably aiming for Karkat but completely failing. What a waste of space and energy.

“Kanaya, you know that I’m not normal, right?” he asked instead, turning to her. “I think I already mentioned to you before that I’m a mutant.”

“We talked briefly about this topic before, but this is an entirely different situation.” Kanaya protested.

“I should have been culled at hatching for the colour of my blood.” Karkat kept talking, ignoring Kanaya’s complains. “This idiotic bastard it’s a weird one, too. His thinkpan is too stupidly fucked up to be accepted by troll society.”

“Hey!” Sollux complained.

“You knew that of us already, but you never treated us differently because of that,” Karkat concluded. “This is the same, what happened to you wasn't your fault and we are friends, of course we will help you. I’m really glad that you are alive, or undead, I mean non-dead.”

Those terms were confusing and not what he was trying to say, how could he made her understand how important she was to him?

“I just want you to be as alright as possible and if that means that now you need blood sometimes, I am okay with that.” he concluded. “We will figure out everything else later.”

Nobody said anything for a few long seconds, not even Sollux was making fun of his ridiculous speech. Instead, both of them were looking at him like they couldn’t believe what they were seeing and listening. Then, Kanaya moved faster than the glance nugget could follow, and he found himself being embraced by a very emotional jade-blooded troll. He hugged her back and felt another prong on the top of his thinkpan, tousling his hair. The owner of that prong let out a mocking chuckle on his side, and when Karkat looked at him sideways, he could read the words _‘pale disaster’_ in his libs. He shot Sollux a venomous look, trying to convey his irritation with only his glance nuggets to a guy who couldn't see him. Well, it will have to do. He was not letting go of Kanaya for better bickering with Sollux. She deserved better.

* * *

A few minutes later, Karkat was running along the meteor’s hallways, trying to keep a glance nugget on dark corners that could hide a sponge deranged clown. Kanaya and Sollux were still in the lab while she fed on him. Once they finish, they would follow him together. Karkat would have preferred that Sollux stayed hidden a bit longer, but he was relieved that he was with Kanaya. He was sure that she was capable of protecting both of them on her own. They were safe, it was time to focus on other things. He had to stop Vriska and Terezi from fighting, and tell them that Gamzee had gone murder-crazy. It would be probably easy to convince them. Once Terezi realised that Vriska wasn't as guilty as she thought she was, she wouldn't feel the need to cull her. Regarding Vriska, despite any plans she had in mind, she would probably forget them and decide to go clown-hunting instead. She never liked Gamzee, after all. It was only a matter of time, Karkat had to get to them before they began fighting. He sped up.

When he reached the meteor’s surface, out of breath due to all those shitty stairs, he had to take a moment to assimilate what was in front of him. Vriska was somewhere on the floor motionless in her orange God Tier clothes, and, in front of him, Terezi was in the middle of a scream fight with someone wearing blue clothes. Obnoxious, ridiculous, long blue clothes that he had seen before through his screen in the computers room.

“John??!” he exclaimed, because what the fuck was the human doing there?! How was he _here_ in the first place?!

The hornless, pale-skinned alien turned to Karkat and put a god dammed huge smile on his face when he saw him. Behind him, Terezi looked in Karkat’s direction for a moment before trying to take something red from the human’s prongs. However, John avoided her and flew directly towards where Karkat was still standing.

“How in the contemptible name of my permanently hate-soiled jerkoff trousers can you _possibly_ be here?!” he screamed when John landed near him, Terezi walking towards them.

“No, I'm not doing this!” the human protested. “I'm not explaining the retcon shit again!”

“Ret-what shit?” the troll asked before turning to Terezi. “And what the fuck happened to Vriska?!”

Then, he turned to his left, where he could see a purple figure on the floor, beaten up and tied up. That looked like Gamzee, but what was he doing there? What had happened? Was that John’s fault? And, again, how the fucking fuck of the fucking Green Sun was the human here?! He wasn't supposed to have been born yet and they were on their session, the troll’s session! How could a human be in a session prior to the creation of the human’s universe? Fucking time shenanigans!

“Is that Gamzee tied up on the floor there, with a horn shoved in his talk blaster?” he had to ask, he had to.

“Honk!” replied the mentioned stupid clown with his even stupider horn.

Karkat barely repressed a scared jump at that. He glared at Gamzee with all his hatred and fear of the last couple of hours. The highblood troll blinked at him and, if he hadn’t had a huge horn in his talk blaster, Karkat could have sworn that he would be smiling at him. Urg, creepy.

“Terezi,” Karkat repeated, because that sponge-fucking situation required repetition. “Why is Gamzee tied up on the floor? I was so worried about you, by the way, I thought he had gotten to you for sure.”

His friend smiled her huge, creepy smile and leant on her dragon cane. Wait a minute, what was she wearing? Wasn’t that her stupid red and tear raid suit?! The one she used for sweeps during her FLARP campaigns and once again in Sgrub during the final battle against the black king? He hadn’t seen it since then and didn’t even know she still had it.

“That's sweet of you, Karkat, but there was no need to worry,” she told him. “I cracked the case. With investigation skills like mine, it was inevitable.”

Well, she had realised on her own that the murderer was Gamzee after all. That was a bit unexpected but good to know, maybe she truly had investigation skills after all. Who would have guessed? And why the fuck was Egbert laughing now?! Such a sponge incapacitated specimen.

“Um, ok?” he muttered while still looking at Egbert. “It would have been nice if somebody told me what sort of preposterous shit was taking place up here. What happened to Vriska? Why is she passed out on the fucking floor?”

“I punched her in the face,” Egbert answered with a shrug.

Of course, she was unconscious because a mentally and physically feeble alien from a universe that still didn’t exist decided to pop out of nowhere in an otherwise _impossible feat_ to punch Vriska in the face. Obvious, he should have known before.

“What?!” Karkat couldn’t stop himself from asking, still trying to assimilate the presence of the human there and then.

“You heard me,” was all answer he got from the dumbest of all dumb mammals that ever existed or will ever exist in all paradox space.

“Ok, John, listen,” he said, focusing all his attention on him. “First of all, shut your fucking ignorance tunnel. I don't even know where to begin addressing the globe numbing absurdity of your sudden presence on this meteor. Let's just awkwardly strafe along the perimeter of that humongous, stink-belching trunkbeast in the room, and let the violently uninhibited nerd-grilling commence,” there, he had established the bases of the absurdity of their situation, now it was time to get to the point. “Why did you punch Vriska in the face?! Not that I necessarily blame you for that, but still.”

“Karkat, take it easy. Here, read this.” John said while he showed him a nasty red scarf full of scribblings in what looked like teal coloured blood.

“What the fuck is this?” he asked while he turned his thinkpan a bit to better check it out without actually touching that piece of shit. That was definitely not John’s prongwriting. Judging by the 413 quirk, it seemed to be something that Terezi had written. But that was impossible because she was right there and Karkat had never seen this scarf before.

“It's all on the scarf, buddy. It's all on the scarf,” John insisted while slapping his back softly in a gesture that was uncomfortably pale.

He pushed down the need to scream and move away from the touchy mammal, reminding himself that humans didn’t have quadrants. It was only a friendly gesture for John, which was already weird. He focused on the scarf, taking a quick look without actually reading what it said. Terezi’s quirk was always a daymare to understand, Karkat always needed a few extra seconds to translate it into a civilised language. He looked over the long text without really reading until he recognised a familiar word: _‘K4RK4T’_.

“Wait, is that my name at the bottom?” he asked automatically while trying to grab the fabric and read what it said about him.

“What? Where?” John replied, pushing him away and taking the scarf with him. “Oh, fuck! I almost missed that one!”

“What the fuck, Egbert?!” Karkat protested and tried to take back the piece of cloth, suddenly invested on it.

John pushed him away again and flew up just enough to be out of reach while he read whatever Terezi wrote about Karkat. He had an expression of concentration mixed with annoyance in his face that told Karkat that the human also had troubles in understanding the troll’s quirk.

“John! Come back here and show me what it says about me!” Karkat insisted.

“Hey! That’s mine!” Terezi protested. “I should be the one reading it, it was future me that wrote it so it’s mine!”

“No, I’m sorry Karkat, but I think it will be best if you don’t read this one,” John answered, shaking his thinkpan. “I don’t think that my dear departed friend, _future Terezi_ , would want any of you to read this.”

Oh no, oh fucking no. There was some information in that piece of shit about Karkat, and Karkat was in his right to know what it was. He hunched down to get impulse and jumped as far as he could. He managed to grab John’s long stupid hood and pulled down on it with all his weight.

“Good catch, Karkat!” Terezi exclaimed. “Bring him down!”

“Wait, no! Let go of my hood Karkat, you will end tearing it!!” John protested.

“What the fuck?! Who is talking?” asked a new voice.

Karkat didn’t need to turn to recognise Sollux’s voice, but John turned his thinkpan to see who had talked. Yes! He seemed distracted now, so it was the perfect opportunity. He pulled harder on the hood but suddenly it disintegrated into blue air and he lost his grip on it. He fell to the floor on his butt and, when he looked up, John had completely turned into that blue air, which made him intangible. Fucking Heir of Breath fucking powers! He watched the air move to where Kanaya and Sollux stood and transform back into a pink skinned alien.

“Hi, is one of you Sollux?” he heard him ask them.

“Seriously, can someone please tell me who is asking?” Sollux protested.

Karkat got up from the floor with Terezi’s help and began walking towards the other three. He was NOT going to be left out. Not when HIS name was written there for everyone to see. He had a right to know about his future!

“Hi, I am Kanaya and this is Sollux,” the troll girl answered. “I know we didn’t talk a lot during your session, but I assume that you are John?”

“Yes, that’s me,” the human affirmed. “It’s nice to meet you Kanaya, Rose always talked very well of you.”

“Oh, well, thanks. It’s also pleasant to meet you, I guess,” she replied, a bit flustered.

“By the way, sorry for pranking you from Rose’s account that time,” John apologized. “It was just a silly joke in retrospect. I hope it didn’t change the way you see Rose now.”

“Pranking? When?” Kanaya asked, clearly confused.

Karkat got there and tried to grab John’s clothes, but he disintegrated again and appeared next to Sollux. The blind troll jumped a bit in response to that, even when he couldn’t see him. Or maybe precisely because he couldn’t see the blue air move towards him.

“How the fuck have you moved here so fast?!” he exclaimed. “And what the fuck do you want with me?”

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. Didn’t you see me moving here?” John replied, oblivious of the situation, as always. Karkat counted backwards mentally until five before he saw John realise his mistake. “OH! You are also blind! I’m sorry, I didn’t know. Wait, I thought that only Terezi was blind? Did she pass it to you? Is blindness contagious?”

“Hey!” Terezi protested.

“What the fucking fuck, John?!” Karkat exclaimed, that was ridiculous, even for Egbert. “Yes, Sollux is blind, that's a fact that everyone here could see from a light-year distance. Or smell in the case of Terezi, whatever. And no, blindness is not contagious, you milk-sucking wiggler! What is the problem with you?!”

“Yeah, ok. Sorry again, I guess,” the human shrugged. “The thing is that I have a message for Sollux from future-Terezi. Here, check it out!”

And then John put the red scarf in front of Sollux and signalled something on it. Karkat facepalmed. John was fucking unbelievable. He had literally just said that Sollux was blind and the stupid human had already forgotten that the troll in front of him COULDN'T SEE!

“Seriously?” Sollux asked, incredulously. “Blind, remember?”

“Oh, right!” John replied while his face turned completely red, Karkat didn’t know that humans could do that. “I will read it to you, it says that no matter what, it's important that you stay in the meteor.”

“What? Of course I’m going to stay on the meteor, where else will I go?” the troll asked.

“I don’t know where you went last time, but you didn’t get to the new season with the rest of them.” John insisted. “So, I guess you skipped ship somewhere.”

What?! Sollux wasn’t in the meteor last time?! What happened to him? Karkat had a bad feeling about this. He hoped that it didn’t mean the worst-case scenario, he didn’t think he could stand someone else dying on him. Specially not Sollux.

“Why should I believe you? We have never even talked before!” Sollux complained.

“But it’s really important that you stay!” John insisted. “Terezi even explained why, it’s all here, see?”

“John, do you mind if I read it?” Kanaya interrupted. “That way I can tell Sollux if what you are saying is true or not. I believe he will have more reasons to trust me than you, mostly based on the fact that you are a complete stranger to him.”

The human checked over his shoulder to where Karkat and Terezi where standing up before turning again to Kanaya and nodding to her.

“Wait! Are you really showing Kanaya and not us?!” Karkat protested and took the couple of steps needed to reach the scarf in Kanaya’s prongs. John intercepted him and pushed him back from his shoulders, keeping him on place. He kept pushing against him, but the human was stronger than he looked like.

“Believe me, Karkat, it’s better if you don’t know,” the human insisted. “I’m doing this for your own good, buddy.”

“Suck my bulge sidewise, dipshit!” Karkat argued. “I’m done with the fucking mysteries, the double fucked secrets, and the triple fucked passwords!”

“Yeah, I hear you, truly,” John agreed while still keeping him away from the scarf. “I’m tired of those too, but this is the last time. Next time I see you, I will explain everything, and I will let you ask me anything you want!”

“That’s not the point, Egbert!” Karkat argued.

“Are you sure?” Karkat heard Sollux said behind John, he moved his thinkpan a bit to check him over John’s shoulder and saw his hatefriend talking with Kanaya.

“It’s Terezi’s prongwriting and quirk for sure,” Kanaya was saying at that moment. “And if what she wrote is true, I believe we should do what she says.”

Then Kanaya turned to him and her expression softened somehow before turning back to Sollux. Karkat realised that the other troll had a pensive and worried expression in his face, too. What the fuck had just happened there? He had missed something again.

“Oi, human! I will do it,” Sollux decided, suddenly.

John disappeared again, leaving Karkat without any resistance stopping him from falling forward, so he ended up on the floor again. When he raised his face from it, John was a fell steps away from him with the scarf in his prongs, and he was thanking both Kanaya and Sollux. Fucker.

“Ok! My job here is done!” he declared. “I think I’m not forgetting anything: Vriska is alive, Sollux is staying and everything else on the list is done. Terezi, if you find my dad’s wallet you know what to do.”

“Yes, yes, Egbert. Get the fuck out of here already, you have messed enough with the timeline,” she complained.

“Yeah, you are right for once Terezi, I've messed with your timeline enough as it is,” he agreed easily.

Then, John walked up to where Vriska was still on the floor and crouched down to talk to her.

“Sorry for clocking you, Vriska, if you can hear me in your dreams,” John said to an unconscious troll before laughing of his own joke. “Haha, you probably can't hear me, but hey, I guess this means I get to meet alive-you soon, instead of ghost-you? So that's neat.

Oh no. The fucker was saying goodbye to Vriska, which meant that he was going to go without explaining anything to them. Not on his watch.

“EGBERT, DON'T YOU DARE FUCK OFF!!” Karkat yelled, but the human was ignoring him completely.

“Please tell her I'm sorry for punching her in the face,” he kept rambling to nobody in particular. “But also, she's welcome for saving her life! Well, I'll see you guys later. Hum, in three years to be precise.”

“What?!” Karkat screamed. “No, don't! You stay the hell put, do you hear me you ugly, peejay packing, flapsniffing, shit infant?!”

“Bye dude!” John replied with a smile. “Take care!”

He hadn’t even finished the sentence that he began shining in a strange blueish light and then, just like that, he was gone. Like he had never been there. Karkat let out a shriek and kept insulting the fuck out of fucking Egbert until he run out of air and had to sit down for a bit.

“I suddenly don’t understand anything, and I am currently casting sincere doubt on the laughable insinuation that I or anyone else ever actually did for even a single moment,” he heard Kanaya saying aloud what everyone was thinking.

Karkat gave up. He let his back fall back until he was completely resting on the floor of the meteor’s surface. Next to them, Terezi was helping Vriska to sit up. She looked confused. Well, welcome to the club, Vriska!

“Kanaya, don't be such a damn nob,” Sollux was saying at that moment. “The explanation for all the stuff I just heard is so obvious.”

Oh no, he could see where this was going. He begged mentally to Kanaya to not keep asking stupid questions. However, she didn’t seem to hear his pledge. Ok, definitively rainbow drinkers did NOT have the ability to read minds. That was good news, he guessed.

“What is the explanation,” Kanaya kept asking, naïvely.

Don’t. Sollux, don’t. Don’t fucking say it. Don’t you dare say it! Please!

“Mutha. Fuckin. Shenanigans.”

He said it. Gods, Karkat had never hated anyone so much as in that moment. Fucking Captor!

* * *

Not long after John disappearance, a green point of light appeared suddenly in the black sky.

“I can smell it! Everyone, look!” Terezi exclaimed while pointing to the approximate direction of the green spot. “We need to go there before the light disappears!”

Karkat kept looking to the green spot for a moment. The humans did it, they really fucking did it! That had to be the Green Sun that Kanaya and Jade were talking about hours ago. He still didn’t know what would they accomplish going there, but it wasn’t like they were doing anything here. They were literally dying beakbeasts sitting there waiting for Jack to find them and kill them. Sure, let’s go to the weird green sun! There was only one problem, though.

“How are we supposed to go there?” he asked to nobody in particular. “It’s not like this meteor can move on it’s own!”

“I can do it,” Sollux said, next to him.

Karkat turned to him. Sollux was now wearing his stupid bicoloured sunglasses over his empty glance nuggets, but that wasn’t enough to make Karkat forget that he was blind and hurt now.

“Are you sure, Sollux?” he asked him. “You are still hurt and your glance nuggets … ”

“Stop underestimating me, KK! I don’t need to see to move this rock, I have done worse before!” his friend insisted. “Just point me in the correct direction.”

“Here, I’m pointing at it now, follow my arm,” Terezi answered. “Quick, we don’t have much time!”

Karkat followed her pointing arm and saw that she was a bit off to the right. Kind of expected from someone who couldn’t see, but they couldn’t afford to do a stupid mistake like that at this point of the game. He took her arm gently and moved it to the correct position without saying anything. Then, he put a prong in Sollux’s posture pole and helped moving him until he was facing on the direction they needed to take.

“Ok, here we go!” Sollux announced. “Pick up your wigglers and be prepared for the fastest ride of your life!”

Then, a wave of psionics went through all of them, wrapping the full meteor, and they shoot off at an incredible speed. Karkat fell back to the floor and couldn’t get up, their speed was too high and the inertia was keeping him down. He looked around and saw everyone else in the floor like him. Everyone was grabbing some part of the meteor’s surface to hold themselves on, and Vriska had a strong hold on Gamzee’s binds, keeping him there. The only one still standing was Sollux. He had a fine layer of psionics around his body and he was in a shrunken position. The green spot in the sky was getting bigger at an astronomic speed, but there was something wrong in Sollux’s psionics. They were white with a bit of a yellowish tone instead of red and blue like they should be. Karkat realised then that Sollux was screaming and something mustard-gold was dropping to the floor in front of the troll. Oh fuck, that was blood, Sollux’s gold blood.

Karkat tried to turn his body to the side but he had nowhere to hold on. He decided then to decaptchalogue a pair of his worst sickles, but one slipped his prong and almost hit Kanaya when it was flown away. He kept a solid grip in the remaining sickle and anchored it to the floor of the meteor. Then, he used that to turn his body until he was resting on his front and managed to lift his thinkpan a bit. Sollux was a few steps in front of him. He was still bleeding but he hadn’t released his psionics for a moment. In front of them, the Green Sun was now the size of a ball.

“Sollux! You are bleeding, you stupid airsponged!” Karkat screamed as loud as he could, trying to be heard over the sound of Sollux’s screaming. “Stop it already!”

“Not… yet!” he heard Sollux’s answering between grunts and pained screams.

Karkat used his free prong to grab an irregular spot in the floor, released his sickle from the hole it was on, and with an impulse he managed to anchor it again a bit further. He used it then to pull his body a step closer, fighting against the opposite force created by their speed. He had to get to Sollux, he had to stop him before it was too late. The Green Sun was now the size of a waterfruit.

“You can’t keep doing it! You will kill yourself if you don’t stop!” Karkat kept screaming.

He released the sickle again and pushed himself a bit further before anchoring it again on the floor. His arms were hurting terribly, and he could barely keep his glance nuggets open without getting dizzy by their speed, but he was moving further step by step. He was almost at Sollux’s strut pods, stained by a pool of gold blood. The green sphere was the size of a moon by now.

“Better me… than all of you!” was Sollux’s only answer in a low voice. He had stopped screaming, now he was only grunting while his body was almost folded in half.

Karkat remembered the bad feeling he had had when John told them that Sollux had not been on the meteor when it got to the new session in his timeline. Did that mean that he was going to die now? He was supposed to stay in the meteor with them, John had told them that it was an important change. Sollux couldn’t die, Sollux was not going to die! He could almost touch his friend’s strut pod by now. In front of them there was more green than black now.

“DON’T YOU DARE DIE ON ME NOW, SOLLUX!!” Karkat screeched, desperate.

At that moment two things happened simultaneously: the meteor stopped abruptly and Sollux’s body collapsed to the floor. There was an intense green light surrounding them now, but Karkat didn’t stop to check their surroundings. He got up now that there was no resistance, almost falling on his front, and moved the few steps that separated him from Sollux’s body. He was lying down motionless on his front in a puddle of gold blood. He fell on his knees next to him and turned him around until he could check his face. There was blood spilling out of his glance nuggets and his talk blaster, and his face was covered in cracks originating from his thinkpan front. He was not breathing.

“SOLLUX!” he screamed while he tried to shake him awake. “Come on, this is not funny, wake up!”

Karkat felt his tears fall from his glance nuggets and for once he didn’t care at all that other trolls could see the reddish colour in them. Sollux was dead. His best friend was dead. He remembered how he met him in an online forum, when they were only two sweeps old. He couldn’t remember what was the forum about anymore, only that he had been trolling some stupid people in there to pass the time when the most annoying douche began antagonising him. Before he realised it they were the only ones bickering on the forum for hours, until they were kicked out of it. He felt a bit sad afterwards when he realised that he had actually liked arguing with him and he hadn’t even asked him for his trollian’s name. A perigee later, someone hacked into his computer, erased half of his files, changed his wallpaper to something hideous, added a new contact to his trollian and left him with a virus that kept opening a window screen with the text ‘ _who ii2 an abhorrent column of 2marmy filth now?_ ’

“Karkat?” he heard someone calling him, but he didn’t move from the filthy floor, with Sollux’s empty thinkpan on his lap.

After that first contact, he and Sollux spent hours every night bickering and arguing about everything and nothing for almost a full season. Then they moved to competing on games online, and after that to multiplayers co-op games. He met Aradia through him and through her he met Tavros, Vriska and Terezi. Eventually he presented Sollux to his friends Gamzee and Nepeta, and through them they met the rest of the team. Their friends and social life expanded drastically in a sweep, which caused them to detach a bit. However, they kept being hatefriends through everything.

“Karkat, sweety, answer me,” he heard the soft voice again. It was Kanaya, he could recognise her now. “Come on, let him go.”

Things got complicated when they grow up, each of them falling in pity and hate with other people and getting over it when those relationships eventually went to shit. And then Aradia died and Sollux appeared one night on his door with a hollow expression in his face. He stayed with him for a few hard perigees, his mood changing from pure rage to self-loathing multiple times each night. He had to be forced to eat or clean up and the daymares filled his sleep. It was during that time that Karkat confessed his own sin, the mutant blood in his veins. What happened during those perigees was too close to a sequence of consecutive emotional piles to be comfortable with, so when Sollux went back to his own hive they both decided not to ever mention it again. However, it was during that time while they were hiding from the world that the circle of revenge by Vriska Serket went down on their group.

“Karkat, please say something,” Kanaya was saying now.

Their relationship went back to how it was before, with bickering and gossiping about the stupid things their friends did. And then they all began playing THE game and everything went to shit town, where they decided to burn everything until all paradox space smelt of burned shit. From Karkat activating the virus that cursed them all and Sollux entering the game already dead, to everything that happened in the last eleven hours, it had all been a fucking daymare. And now Sollux had died again, helping them. They already revived him once so this time it was for good. His best friend was gone.

“Hey KK, stop the melodramatic shit and look up already!!”

He knew that voice, but it was impossible, it couldn't be real. Karkat looked up immediately and saw someone with his dead hatefriend’s face, shape and clothes floating in front of him. He looked down to the body in his arms an up to the flying troll again just to be sure that it was real. What the fuck?

“Finally!” the second Sollux said with an arrogant smile. “I see you have missed me; I didn’t know you cared so much, KK!”

That was definitively Sollux, nobody was able to irritate him as fast as the biforked bone bulged idiot of his best hatefriend. Karkat felt his cheeks heat up in embarrassment at being caught up crying but refused to show it. On his side he felt Kanaya touching his shoulder a moment before getting up and leaving them alone, but he barely reacted to that.

“Excuse me for having a fucking emotional reaction to my best hatefriend dying in such a heroic way!” he protested. “Pardon me for spending a few moments remembering the best moments spent with my recently departed best hatefriend! Not everybody can be an arrogant gold blood that is so full of himself that he gets perturbed when he isn't the centre of all attention for two fucking seconds!”

“So, now you are bringing up my blood’s colour into this?” fake-Sollux replied. “You are a fucking hypocrite, KK.”

“Don’t call me KK, you are not my friend, he just died to allow us to escape a painful death!” Karkat interrupted. “You are a fake, a bad copy! I don’t even know who or what you are!”

“You can’t be serious,” was all the reply he got. “I thought it was clear to everyone that I am the half-ghost of the guy you keep petting like a desperate lusus with a dead wiggler.”

“Shut the fuck up! I will pet the body of my dead friend as much as I want!” he replied. “You are lying by the way, Sollux was revived once in the beginning of our session, so his ghost has been spent already. You must be a doomed version of him from a timeline when everything went wrong. Well, more wrong, wronger. And what the fuck is a half-ghost, anyway?”

“Wow, kinky,” fake-Sollux laughed. “Let me educate your inferior thinkpan in what is happening here. The first time, when I was revived, I woke up in Prospit. But this time I’m coming from Derse,” he explained. “So, I guess I had two ghosts all along or my soul was divided in two ghosts or something fucked up like that. It would explain why I can only see with my right glance nugget.”

Two ghosts. Sollux had two fucking ghosts, one for Prospit and one for Derse. It was ridiculous, egotistical even, but at the same time it made sense. Everything was double-teamed with Sollux.

“Of fucking course you would be the only existence ever to have two fucking ghosts, you narcissistic scumbag! Everything goes in pairs with you!” Karkat exclaimed, throwing his arms to the air.

He let himself fall back on the floor again and fixed his glance nuggets on ghost-Sollux. The edge of Karkat's shirt got wet with Sollux’s blood, but after everything that had happened in the last twelve hours that was the least of his problems.

“You died twice and got blind. Didn’t you mention something like that before?” Karkat asked, trying to remember.

“Yes, is the fate of all prophets,” the ghost answered. “I always knew that I was destined to die twice, which made me a prophet and as such it was expected I would end blind too. All prophets do.”

That was weird but something that Sollux had told him before. He also mentioned once that he could hear the end of the world. Karkat never believed him but maybe he should have done it. He had been right in the end.

“Wait, if you have two ghosts, does that mean that you can be revived twice?” Karkat asked while he sit up again, the idea suddenly popping on his thinkpan.

“Hey, Karkat, I’m glad you finally snapped out of that crying party!” someone interrupted with a monotonous tone of voice.

Karkat got up from the floor, looked around and saw three figures that he had not realised where there before. He had been so focused in ghost-Sollux that he had omitted everything else. He could see Aradia in a red costume and pixie rust wings chatting lively with Terezi and Vriska. Near them, Kanaya was talking to somebody with clear hair and pinky skin that was also wearing God Tier clothes the same orange colour than Vriska’s. She was clearly human, but she couldn’t be Jade because Jade’s skin had a lovely dark brown colour, and her hair was black and long. She was the other female human then, Lalonde. He turned his glance nuggets to the human in front of him. Even if he couldn’t deduce who he was by elimination, a simple look to his white hair and the huge stupid sunglasses covering half of his face was enough to identify him.

“Strider,” Karkat said.

“Sup.” was all the answer he got.

Dave fucking Strider. The arrogant human that had been pissing him off in every conversation, no matter how short it was, and over whom Terezi was so obsessed. He tried to check him out from an objective point of view, struggling to understand what she saw in him. He was skinny, his hair was even lighter than Lalonde’s and his skin was the lightest colour he had seen in a human. He had a few darker spots in his face but most of it was hidden by his stupid sunglasses. Strider was also wearing God Tier clothes with a cape that were the red colour of his mutant blood. There was a gear sign in the front of his clothes, and he was floating effortlessly next to ghost-Sollux. He was so fucking lucky that Terezi was blind because he was weird and ugly.

“Take a picture, it will last longer,” Strider recited with a blank face.

“Oh, fuck off! I was contemplating how are you able to wear such horrifying clothes without dying of embarrassment on the spot,” Karkat replied, emphasising with his prongs.

“Hey, leave the God Tier pyjamas alone!” Strider protested. “These are magic clothes and are comfortable as fuck. I also got them during the explosion generated by two dying universes to create a huge, creepy green sun, so I fucking earned them!”

Right. The colossal green sun in front of them that the pair of humans were supposed to destroy and not create. The mystical Green Sun that was the source of Jack’s powers.

“What the fuck happened with that, by the way?” he asked. “I thought you were on a mission to destroy the Green Sun, but instead you created it! I’m not ashamed to say that I am confused.”

“Yeah, me too,” Strider replied with a prong touching his spine lump. “It seems that we were tricked, though.”

“The sun will never be destroyed, Karkat,” Aradia interjected. “I’m sorry but all of you were misinformed!”

Karkat decided it was time to move away from the blood staining his shoes and get down into one of his well patented Vantas-tantrums.

“Ah! Well, now that we have that information, I can finally sleep! Everything will be fine guys, we were just hornswoggled and misinformed, carry on then!” Karkat repeated with exaggerated sarcasm. “Pardon me, but wasn't the whole point of this mission to take out the sun and neutralize Jack?”

“It shouldn't be a problem,” a new voice answered, Karkat turned his thinkpan and found that the one that had talked this time was Lalonde.

“I’m so glad to hear you saying that the failure of your last crazy plan doesn’t represent a problem for us,” he agreed, still in sarcastic mode. “I’m guessing you have a new plan, what would it be this time?”

“It's simple,” Lalonde answered. “We travel to the new session, regroup with the new players, and then defeat him in person.”

“Nice, sounds interesting,” Karkat affirmed, going so far as to even nod with his thinkpan. “Except for the fact that we already did that, and we failed! Future-John showed up a few minutes ago and told us that we all ended dying in his timeline!”

After hearing that, Lalonde’s ganderbulbs went huge for a moment before her expression transformed into one of complete concentration. Her glance nuggets went unfocused and she seemed to be looking to something that only she could see.

“Wait, John was here?!” Strider exclaimed on his side but everyone ignored him.

“That’s strange” Lalonde muttered, her glance nuggets focusing back on Karkat. “That’s still the only favourable outcome I can See. What did John say exactly?”

“He said that he had somehow got a new power that allowed him to time-travel and change things without creating a doomed timeline,” Terezi answered from the side. “Apparently, a future version of myself wrote some instructions of where to go and what to change.”

“Oh! Is that why Vriska is not dead?” Aradia asked. “I was quite surprised because I had expected the amount of dead troll bodies to be higher. I’m glad that at least we found yours, Sollux! We can still have a corpse party with it!”

Everyone turned to her at her comment. She was acting like she got one gift less than expected on 12th Perigee's Eve instead of one of her friends being unexpectedly alive instead of dead. Not that Aradia and Vriska were truly friends after all the mutual murder history between them, but even with that. It was creepy.

“For fuck’s sake, Aradia!” Sollux exclaimed. “Will you cool it on the troll dead count shit for a minute?”

“What’s the matter?” she asked with an expression of total innocence.

“I mean,” Sollux continued. “Everybody here has just met, and I guess just went through a lot of really heavy bullshit, do you think that maybe this isn't the best thing to harp on right now? Frankly, it's all pretty fucking morbid, I just thought you should know.”

When Sollux was the one instructing someone else in being more sensitive when talking to others, it meant that something was really wrong. It was clear by her face that Aradia knew that fact, too.

“Am I really that bad?” she asked, looking at everybody else.

“Yes,” Terezi said, directly to the point as usual.

“Oh, sorry,” Aradia apologized. “I guess I’ve spent enough time here that I just don’t see death as the terrible thing the living make it out to be. I honestly feel like it’s a reason to celebrate!”

Nobody said anything for a moment, probably as creeped out by Aradia’s fascination with Death itself as Karkat was. Luckly, Lalonde decided it was time to change the topic.

“Ok, going back to our previous discussion. You said that John avoided Vriska’s dead,” the human said. “Did he do or say anything else?”

“He mentioned that Sollux needs to stay on the meteor,” Kanaya answered, clearly happy with the change of topic. “We were confused about that because our Sollux had no intention or method to leave the meteor but on light of recent events…”

Karkat looked back to the corpse of his dead hatefriend. If that was something that had also happened last time, it meant that Sollux was already dead at this point. In that case, the only interpretation of John’s words was that ghost-Sollux decided to leave them. He raised his thinkpan to look at him and noticed that almost everyone was doing the same. Strider hadn’t moved an inch but with those glasses hiding his glance nuggets, who knew where he was looking at?

“What?!” ghost-Sollux exclaimed, clearly uncomfortable with all the attention. “Does that mean that I need to stay?”

“So, you were really thinking of leaving,” Karkat muttered without meaning to.

It hurt a bit that his best hatefriend was ready to leave him with these strangers. Especially after everything that had happened. Well, ghost-Sollux had not been there so maybe he didn’t know what had happened?

“I don’t know, I’m truly tired of this sick adventure. I guess I just wanted to chill out and rest for a while,” his hatefriend explained. “You are not staying here, right, Aradia?”

“Oh, no, I was never going to stay,” she answered quickly. “There's a lot of work to do out there in the dream bubbles and I’m itching to meet all the alternative versions of our friends!”

“That sounds nicer than staying in this doomed meteor,” Sollux protested. “Are you sure that I have to stay? I really don’t believe my presence or absence could be that determinant to the timeline.”

“Terezi was very explicit that someone would die if you didn’t stay in this meteor, Sollux,” Kanaya said before throwing Karkat a quick glance. “I saw the sentence she wrote myself.”

That was new information, so someone would die if Sollux decided to abandon them and go away with Aradia? Suddenly, Karkat felt a shiver travelling up his torso pillar. There had been another name written in that scarf.

“I saw my name in the scarf, on the last sentence,” he said aloud, feeling his prongs shake but forcing himself to look straight at Kanaya. “I'm the one that will die, right?”

Kanaya’s glance nuggets turned to him, large and scared before shifting to look at the floor. Without looking up, she nodded. Oh. It was true then. He actually died in that doomed timeline and future Terezi thought that it was going to happen again. He was actually glad that Terezi had decided that he was worthy enough to risk changing the timeline only to ensure he survived. He was glad but he felt guilty at the same time. If she had wanted to, Terezi could have sent John back to make changes that would have avoided the death of Feferi, Nepeta, Tavros, Equius or even Eridan. Instead of that, she had sent him to save only Vriska and himself. Were their lives that relevant to the timeline or had Terezi used John selfishly to save those trolls that she appreciated more?

He raised his thinkpan and looked directly at Terezi, he was sure that she was asking herself the same question. He turned to look at Sollux then. He was looking at Aradia with such a sad and longing expression that Karkat felt it like a dagger in his blood pusher. He couldn’t do it. He didn’t have the courage to take Sollux away from her after all the suffering that Aradia’s death had caused him. Karkat didn’t want to die either, but what was his dead compared to the millions of alternate dead trolls in the vastness of paradox space?

“Well, it's clear to me that future-Terezi was messing with John with that one,” he made himself say with forced cheer. “There is no way that my death will cause a doomed timeline.”

“Karkat, I think she was serious,” Kanaya replied with a confused expression.

“Nonsense,” he insisted. “For all that I loathe her, I can see why saving Vriska could lead to a tactically beneficial outcome. But me being alive or dead won’t cause any beneficial or detrimental change. It's clear to everybody at this point that I'm not the strongest of us. I'm not God Tier either and it seems that I even suck at leadership,” he elaborated. “In conclusion, we can assume that Terezi was only using John to prank us both simultaneously for no apparent reason.”

Nobody said anything for a moment but the hard expressions on Kanaya, Terezi and Lalonde’s faces told him that they didn’t believe him at all.

“What are you…?” he heard Strider ask in a confused tone.

“What are you trying to do here, KK?” Sollux interrupted in a cold voice.

Karkat wanted to scream. He was trying to give Sollux an option, to give him an excuse to go with Aradia like he clearly wanted. Why couldn’t he go along with it for once instead of fighting him on it?! Doing what he wanted without arguing for once would have been so nice!

“I’m not trying to do anything,” Karkat replied with a shrug. “Only saying it as I see it.”

“Bullshit. You are being self-depreciating again!” Sollux said, calling him off on his bluff. “Do you think that saying that shit will made me leave you here to die?!”

And the first prize for most stubborn fucker in all paradox space goes to Sollux Captor!

“I’m not going to die! That was the whole point!” he protested. “And even if I do, it doesn’t matter! I’m irrelevant! There was a full explanation about this that concluded with a nice and well debated conclusion at the end!”

“The only thing you said was the same stupid self-hatred nonsense you have been saying since we were wigglers!" Sollux insisted. “You know how much I hate you when you do that!”

“I’m NOT self-hating myself! Not more than usual at least!” Karkat insisted. “I'm only saying that I'm not going to die if you decide to live and have fun for once! And only for the record, I hate you even more!”

“What I do or not do with my life it’s not your fucking business!” Sollux screamed, for some reason he had descended until he was at the same height than Karkat.

“Why do you have to be such a sensitive heiress about everything?!” Karkat shouted. “I know how much you missed Aradia, I’m just trying to tell you that it’s fine for me if you want to go with her!”

“Fuck you! You can’t tell me what to do!” the taller troll yelled back. “I don’t need your permission to do whatever I want! If I want to come, you can’t do anything to stop me!”

“Fine! Do whatever you want but do it away from me!” Karkat exploded. “If I have to see your face regularly for a sweep and a half I will fucking kill you before we get to the new session! Or I will kill myself so that your ‘ _noble sacrifice_ ’ will have been for nothing! Maybe I should do that! I will wait until the last moment and kill myself before anyone else could, just to show you how wrong you were with this decision!”

“As if you could! I won’t let you die until we have destroyed this fucking game and got our price!” Sollux counterattacked. “And then, when we are in front of the fucking door, I will push you away and leave you trapped here!” 

“I prefer to die right now than staying trapped here a second more than strictly needed! I will throw myself in front of Jack’s path if needed!” Karkat yelled.

“No, you won’t! Not on my watch!”

“Fine! Do whatever the fuck you want, like always!”

“I will!”

“Fine!”

“Fine!”

Karkat stopped screaming for two seconds and realised that he was out of breath and his thinkpan front was almost touching Sollux’s. Apparently both of them had been screaming directly in the other’s face. He was out of breath and all his body was vibrating with anger and tension.

“Wtf… ?” someone murmured behind him,

He didn’t know who had talked but that made Karkat suddenly remember that they weren't alone. They were, in fact, the opposite of alone. He saw the moment Sollux realised that same fact when his glance nuggets opened huge and his face went pale. When they both turned their thinkpans to the origin of that voice, they found a group of trolls and humans looking at them with faces showing mixed expressions of confusion, disgust, amusement and embarrassment. Only then Karkat realised that he was still too close to Sollux and how their last display of mutual hatred could be misinterpreted. He took a couple of steps away from the other troll but refused to run away in shame. He wouldn't give Sollux that satisfaction. A quick check told him that Sollux face was suspiciously yellow, but he seemed as determined as him to do as if nothing had happened.

“Perfect, then!” Aradia exclaimed, cheerful as ever. “Decided! Sollux stays.”

The mentioned troll grumbled something and began floating further away from him. Rose took that as a clue and began talking again, explaining what they needed to do to get to the next session. Karkat used that distraction to move away from that spot, sliding near Kanaya, that smiled to him with a knowing expression in her face.

“Don’t say anything, please,” he begged, and she focused her attention back on Lalonde. Karkat had never been so glad for Kanaya’s discretion.

Lalonde told them that following her prediction they would be able to get to the next session in three human years riding over the path the light of the Green Sun would travel to reach the new Skaia. She talked about disturbances in time and space within paradox space that made it almost impossible to navigate and Aradia contributed to that with her own experience.

Through all that conversation, Karkat hardly listened. He was repeating his last argument with Sollux in his mind. He still didn’t know how they had gone from him trying to push Sollux towards Aradia, to Sollux threatening to not let him kill himself just to spite him. Also, he wasn’t sure, but didn’t they exchanged a couple of ‘ _I hate you_ ’ at one moment? And they did that in front of everyone. Fuck, that was so embarrassing. At least the humans wouldn’t understand the possible implications of what happened there. Which were inexistent, no implications of any kind or form, only him and Sollux bickering like usual, as happened in a perfectly normal hatefriendship. Oh, fuck. Could the situation get more embarrassing?!

Just then a bucket appeared out of nowhere and hit him directly on his face.


	2. Dream Bubble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team begins their journey and enters their first dream bubble, meeting some helpful friends in it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter, new POV.  
> Some conversations at the beginning of the chapter are adapted from pages 4355, 4356, 4372, and 4383-5 from the canon.

Kanaya was living the dream, or as close to it as was reasonable in their current circumstances. She was a rainbow drinker now, something she had dreamed of since she was a wiggler, and she was finally meeting Rose Lalonde in person. THE Rose Lalonde. The fact that she could feel the warm touch of sunlight on her skin again was also wonderful. Yes, they had had casualties but, truthfully, none of them where from her inner circle of friends. As far as she knew, Nepeta and Feferi had both been sweet girls that didn’t deserve to die, but she hadn’t properly interacted with them before the game so she didn’t really feel sad about it. Equius was too weird and uncomfortable for Kanaya’s tastes, both in person and through Trollian. For this reason, even if he was not that bad, she was indifferent to his fate. Tavros, instead, had been the cause of too much pain for Kanaya, as a consequence of Vriska’s obsession over him, to trigger her compassion now. Kanaya knew very well that jealousy was not a good look for anyone, and it could also be argued that it had not been Tavros’s intention to hurt her like that. But the fact was that he did, for sweeps. She had tried to forgive him, helping Equius to give him robotic legs, but, even then, he had been a failure of a troll in her opinion. She certainly could not see how his life being spared could have improved their chances of survival. It was probably for the better that he was dead, he would be able to stop being so afraid of everything, now that the worst had already happened.

Eridan instead was a completely different case. They used to talk a lot before the game, probably as a sense of solidarity for their similar relationship’s problems. Both of them felt trapped in a moirallegiance with someone whom they had flush feelings for, so, in a way, there was a kind of companionship between them. The violet-blood used to say that if he ever decided to commit genocide on all land-dwelling trolls, he would spare Kanaya's life. But, a few hours ago, Eridan destroyed the matriorb and killed her in cold blood, breaking his promise. That was the end of their almost-friendship, and Kanaya didn’t regret killing him. He had deserved that and more. So, yes, they had had fatalities, but Kanaya still had those she cared for most, so it didn’t really bother her. In a way, it reminded her of the cavern’s trials that the young wigglers had to overcome before being selected by a lusus. As a jade-blood, Kanaya understood perfectly that trials like that were vital for a sustainable, strong, healthy population. It was nature’s law. She only regretted that Gamzee had survived, too.

Karkat slipped behind her, trying to hide from everybody’s sight for once, and Kanaya couldn’t suppress a smile. She was so glad that he was alright now that Sollux was back. She had been so worried when he fell on his knees next to Sollux’s dead body, crying desperately and not answering to her voice. He had probably been in shock, the poor creature. And, judging from the intense almost-concupiscent show he and Sollux had gifted them a few moments ago, it was understandable. She had thought that Karkat was unable to have black feelings towards anyone, he had said so himself, but there was no doubt in her mind that what just transpired between the gold-blood and him was pure pitch tension. It had been almost as romantic as in her novels, only a passionate kiss was needed to make it a perfect moment. Thinking about romance her lookstubs automatically moved back to Rose, who was explaining her plans at the moment.

“Reasonably soon, within a certain window, it will be time to leave,” she was saying. “We will then pilot this meteor as fast as we can make it go in that exact direction.”

She floated and pointed in a direction into the dark surrounding them. Kanaya tried to see their possible destination but the only light was the one provided by the Green Sun near them. Outside of its range there was only darkness.

“What's that way?” she heard Sollux ask.

“Nothing whatsoever,” the human answered. “As of now, that way lies darkness and uncertainty beyond description.”

It was clear than Rose was still as cryptic as always in her way of speaking, it was almost encouraging. Kanaya decided to intervene, then.

“I see,” she said, making sure to keep her tone of voice neutral and constant. “Then, perhaps we should reserve the infinite darkness plan for the _maybe_ column for now. I think I am even willing to let Dave take a crack at the logistics of this plan before we commit to that particular manoeuvre, daring though it sounds.”

That did the trick, Rose turned to her and looked directly into her lookstubs. Kanaya was not sure of it, but the human seemed to be restraining a smile, forcefully keeping her composure and mannerisms. How delightful. She listened again into the conversation, which had derived into Dave monologuing about spending his time composing slam poetry and drawing, with Terezi agreeing to it happily. Wigglers.

“Yes,” Kanaya intervened again. “I am willing to humour elaboration on this _rap_ centric plan and its apathy-based contingencies. Even if it sounds excessively stupid.”

Rose was definitely restraining a smile now at her efforts at sarcasm. Lovely. Kanaya had to figure out the way to break her composure and properly get an honest smile from her. She would do it, she was sure of it. In due time.

“Trust me, it is,” Rose said with an exasperated look towards the other human before going back to Kanaya. “Just as you should trust me that by the time we leave, if we leave exactly within the designated window and are able to travel at nearly the speed of light, the meteor will trace a route through the furthest ring which will topologically resolve as a straight line directly towards the new session," she explained. "For only a brief moment, the Green Sun will be visible from that session, and we will be riding the chartreuse coattails of its photons.”

That was an interesting and accurate prediction. Kanaya was suddenly curious about Rose’s powers of precognition. As a Sylph, she was unfamiliar with the abilities of a Seer, even though she understood a little the burden of having knowledge of the far future. However, in Kanaya’s case, those glimpses of the future had been acquired through sweeps of studying Skaia’s clouds from her tower in Prospit. And, as it was revealed out later, those visions led mostly to incorrect interpretations from her part. Cloud interpretation was clearly not a feasible way to accurately predict the future.

“This is why you all needed an advanced Seer!” Aradia exclaimed, happily as always. “I have become familiar with the ways of the fabric out here, but even I couldn’t chart a journey that long or complex.”

“That's because it's almost impossible to do so voluntarily,” Rose agreed. “If we were to head right now in the session's true physical direction, it wouldn't be long before we found ourselves travelling in just the opposite direction.”

That was… interesting. And completely different of how she understood the laws of Space, her own aspect.

“This is not even to speak of the chronological peculiarities,” the human kept explaining. “After travelling some distance, we could discover we were suddenly tailgating our own meteor from several days ago. If we are particularly unfortunate, we might even collide in an intersection of spacetime with a meteor piloted by our future selves," she elaborated. "And if we looked closely at that meteor before impact, we might notice a very large dent in it, which it originally suffered during the very collision we were about to experience.”

That was definitively not how space worked in Kanaya’s experience. But she could understand, theoretically, how difficult would be to navigate through any long distance in a place where both time and space were not constant. As Aradia said, it would be impossible to predict unless one had the ability to see the future with extreme detail.

“It takes precision and timing to reach your destination out here, and most importantly, the grace of the gods themselves,” Rose concluded.

“So, what you're saying is that we're going to be on this meteor a good while longer to get to the next session, right?” Vriska asked with a contemplative face.

“Yes,” Rose answered.

“And since we apparently need mustard-blood here alive and we already lost one… ” the troll elaborated. “We are not going to force his half-ghost to pop himself again like a packet of nasty fetid mustard so he can shoot this thing into hyperspace.”

“You can’t made me do it anyway, spidertroll,” Sollux protested. “Your mind powers don’t work on me half of the time.”

That might be right, but everyone knew what Vriska was able to force him to do the few times she managed to control him. Kanaya seriously hoped that Vriska would not try her tricks this time, she did not want to auspice for her again. It would be awkward considering that Kanaya had been avoiding her for almost the full 600 hours they spend playing the game.

“I'm guessing that it'll take considerably longer to get to the next session than it did to get here?” Vriska asked, thankfully choosing to ignore Sollux’s bait comment.

“Yes,” Rose repeated.

“And, in your opinion, how long is this trip going to take?” Vriska kept asking.

“It’s not an opinion, it’s a fact,” Rose replied with a bit of hostility in her tone of voice. “If we leave at the correct moment and keep travelling at almost the speed of light we will reach the next session in about three human years.”

Three years. If Kanaya’s estimation was correct that was approximately a sweep and a half. A sweep and a half trapped in an empty, dark, depressing meteor. She turned towards the sun; would she have to live without natural light for so long? Her skin could glow now so she would never be in total darkness, but it could not be compared to experiencing the kiss of sunlight on her skin.

“Are you completely sure that your estimation is accurate?” Vriska insisted. “It will be a long trip and we will need to manage our limited resources if we want to make it. We can’t afford a mistake in calculating the length of our trip.”

At that, Rose’s immutable expression seemed to crack a bit, now it was clear that she was getting annoyed by the troll’s insistence and subtle insinuation that she was wrong. Remembering how destructive could Rose be when promoted, Kanaya decided to intervene.

“John also mentioned that it would be three years until we see him again,” she said, sending a warning look to Vriska. “It fits with Rose’s prediction.”

The blue-blooded troll was clearly surprised by Kanaya’s interruption, probably because she used to auspisticise Vriska’s relationships with almost everyone else in the past. Something that Kanaya had been refusing to do for a perigee. Exactly the same amount of time that she had been avoiding her. It was clear that she would need to talk with Vriska about their broken diamond, even though Kanaya had exposed her opinion on the topic before. She had been trying to avoid a personal confrontation and let her acts speak for herself, but it seemed that it was a necessity. Especially if they would be living together in a closed space for a sweep and a half.

“This is going to be a wonderful adventure for everyone!” Aradia exclaimed, still in her happy mood. “I’m a bit jealous, honestly! Or I would be if I wasn’t having such a good time with my dead friends!”

That was the problem with Aradia. Even when she had been alive, Kanaya had always considered Aradia to be selfish, focused only on herself and her wishes. She was not a bad troll per se, and it was clear that she cared about her friends in her way, but at the end of the day the only thing that mattered was herself and her prophecies. During the time she had been a ghost she had lost the ability to feel happiness or to desire for anything, and the only thing that had remained was her self-preservation instincts. With the perspective of time, it was clear that Aradia had kept vital information to herself and manipulated them and other key elements to obtain the best outcome. It had worked in the end, they had survived until that point after all, but Kanaya never liked the feeling that all of them were only a small part of a big plan for her. Aradia had clearly recovered her enthusiasm for life when ascending to God Tier, but she was still acting exclusively on the interest of the big picture.

“So, you are not coming with us then,” Kanaya asked, just to be clear.

“No,” Aradia confirmed. “I still have important work to do here.”

“Aaaaaww!” Terezi pouted.

Kanaya had expected that answer so she was not surprised. She checked Sollux discretely. He looked sad and like he was debating something with himself. With the way he looked sideways towards where Karkat was still half hiding, she could guess what was the gold-blooded’s dilemma. She seriously hoped that he stayed, not only for Karkat’s sake but for his own. It was clear how much Karkat cared for him after the state he had been when their Sollux had died. In contrast, Aradia would probably make him a ‘ _corpse party’_ with a big smile, as she had already suggested, and then forget him to go on her own adventures. A bit like it was happening now, she clearly did not seem sad or conflicted with Sollux’s decision to stay.

“I have to, but that doesn’t rule out the possibility we could meet again in bubbles along your journey!” was saying the red God Tiered troll at the moment.

“I hope so,” Terezi answered with clear doubt in her voice.

Kanaya looked at Terezi for a moment, remembering that she was a Seer of Mind, and, as such, she was able to see the future decided by each chosen path. If she doubted that she would see Aradia again, it probably meant that she would indeed not see her. Kanaya turned to the Green Sun again. Suddenly, she felt sad and didn’t want to leave the light side. What was the point of her going to the next session, after all? Even if they managed to beat all the enemies and create a new universe, the matriorb had already been destroyed and there was no troll repopulation plan anymore. Kanaya didn’t have a role anymore.

“Maybe I will stay here, too,” she said aloud, her eyes still on the sun.

“Why?” she heard Rose ask.

She turned her lookstubs towards her, again. For an alien race, Rose was beautiful. Not aesthetically, because she was an alien after all, with strange and confusing features. She did not look bad either, but Kanaya had never been attracted to other trolls only for esthetical reasons. For Kanaya, a strong personality and intelligence had always been the most attractive traits, and those had eventually led her to appreciate other aspects, like aesthetics. Rose had both personality and intelligence, along with her strong charisma, mystery and exquisite style. It was not a surprise that Kanaya found her so fascinating. She didn’t find her physical appearance more alluring that others, yet, but she was sure that she would get there eventually. With a bit of time.

“As nice as it sounds to move on, I do not know if I can stand three of your human years of more darkness,” she explained, trying to transmit the idea that she would not have any complains with spending those three years with Rose if it was in other circumstances. “I like this sun. It is comforting in a strange way, almost like home.”

“But what if we need your help?” the human girl asked.

Kanaya tried her hardest to not interpret her question as _‘what if I need you?’_. This was an important decision to take, and she probably should not let her infatuation determine her fate. If her heart was pumping faster than usual, nobody needed to know.

“What could I possibly do?” she asked in a sarcastic tone that made her almost proud of herself. “Aside from providing a light source as you navigate the dim corridors. I would function as a premium escort to the load gaper, and that’s about it.”

She was clearly improving in the correct use of sarcasm. It turned out that the key to optimal sarcastic remarks was to infuse positive sentences with a feeling of inadequacy and incompetence.

“But Kanaya, you still have an important work to finish, too!” Aradia protested. “We can’t ignore our duties!”

As expected, Aradia was more worried about Kanaya failing to execute her role in her big plan than about her feelings or wishes. What a surprise. Sarcasm again, she was getting proficient at it.

“What are you talking about?” Kanaya asked her.

“Our race is extinct, remember?” Aradia asked, as if that fact was not the reality that Kanaya had to face every night. “And after a few more casualties, it is now hanging by a thread! Your job was to see to the resurrection of our people.”

“What real hope is there for that?” she asked with a resigned tone of voice. “The matriorb was destroyed and I was never able to duplicate it because the grist cost was astronomical. It’s gone.”

“There’s always hope, though!” the other troll insisted. “You just never know, and I don’t think you should give up!”

That was suspicious, especially coming from Aradia. She had always had insight of future events, after all, even if her ways were mysterious. Maybe it was not over, after all? Could it still be possible to somehow obtain a new matriorb in the new session? Oh, she wished for the ability to see the future and know the answer for sure! Although, they had a Seer of Light now, maybe she would be able to glimpse something?

“Do you know if that will happen, Rose?” she asked, trying to suppress her hope. “Can you See the path to victory on this matter?”

“It's hard to say,” she replied, meditatively. “Does the repopulation of your species qualify as victory? These things aren't always clear cut. Some outcomes are for your own judgment,” Rose explained. “What outcome would you like the most?”

There were infinite outcomes that Kanaya would like to happen, especially regarding her friends and their future happiness. It was too broad to pin out a single crucial event. But regarding the troll’s repopulation and her role in it, her desired outcome was clear.

“I would like to have the matriorb again and to keep it safe this time,” she said and bit her lip lightly before continuing. “And, I guess, I would like to not be a total failure this time.”

The way that Rose was looking at her clearly softened at her words. If she had been a troll, Kanaya would have been almost sure that Rose had just felt pity for her in a good way. But she was not a troll, she was human. Pity did not have the same cultural context for them that it had for trolls, Kanaya was fully aware of it. It did not stop her feeling flustered. Oh, apparently her own skin could glow brighter sometimes, how marvellous.

“Ok,” Rose said softly. “If you follow my advice, I can at least promise you will find yourself in the best position to determine whether that may come to pass.”

That was not really the answer Kanaya was hoping for. In a way, she was saying that if Kanaya stayed here, she would definitively lose all opportunity to obtain a new matriorb. But going with them was not a straight answer either, it would be increasing her chances only slightly. It would mean spending a longer time hoping for a miracle, only to be plausibly disappointed in the end. She felt a hand in her posture pole, and she realised that Karkat was grabbing her clothes, maybe without realising it himself. She looked at him over her shoulder, but he was avoiding her lookstubs. Oh, he did not want her to leave either, but he would not ask her to stay and put her in a compromised situation. Sometimes Karkat was the sweetest troll.

“Can you please come?” Rose insisted, capturing her attention again. “Between the two of us, you with your inexplicably heretofore unmentioned phosphorescence, and I with my nigh-reflective traffic cone orange sun-sari, the meteor should never be too dark.”

That… that was something else. Rose was being unexpectedly forthcoming and persistent that she remained with her. Between her insistence and Karkat’s grip on her, Kanaya suddenly felt truly needed and appreciated. Maybe it would be reasonable to stay, even if it were only to remain with them for a bit longer. And who knew what her absence could do to the timeline? She would definitively despise herself if her decision instigated the death of the few friends she still had.

“Well, all right,” she accepted finally. “But must we really leave so soon?”

“It's soon or never,” Rose insisted. “But not immediately. Even if the route were accessible right now, it would still behove us to wait. There's correspondence from John yet to arrive.”

“Whoa, really?!” Dave exclaimed.

Kanaya throw a glance in his direction. The male human had not moved from his position, at the edge of the group but still close enough to participate in the conversation if he wished so. His body and face’s expressions had remained unalterable and closed up during all their debate, and he had contributed only on spare occasions. However, now he was visibly enthusiastic and delighted with the prospect of hearing from his friend. It was almost charming, it reminded her of grubvideos of young wigglers she used to check in GrubTube. She wondered for a moment if it would still be possible to access old Alternia’s internet. Most likely not, what a shame.

“Yes, we will get it at any moment now,” Rose confirmed with a smile. “And after that, we will have to wait for one final guest to appear. Then, we ride like the solar wind. The race will be afoot.”

“Wait, another visitor?” Kanaya asked. “Who?”

Just then, and before anybody could answer her, a sphere of green light appeared floating in front of Kanaya. Surprised, she moved to the side just in time to avoid something that emerged from the point of light, instead hitting Karkat directly on his face. The troll fell to the floor and stayed there for a shocked moment, looking at the item that had been plastered against his face. The object in question looked naughtily like a filial pail, with a sheet of paper falling out of it. Someone had sent a message in a filial pail directly towards Karkat’s face.

That was the most depraved thing Kanaya had ever seen or read in all her life. She couldn’t avoid letting out a shocked short scream, and she had to turn her face into the opposite direction while she felt her skin shine brighter than ever. It took her a moment to realise that, for the humans, a filial pail had a completely different meaning. For them it was only an object used regularly for cleaning purposes, instead of being a critical element of their sexual reproduction. She forced herself to turn to the group again and saw that Vriska was doing the same, while Terezi and Aradia looked unperturbed. Rose was looking at her with an entertained expression, and Dave was laughing at Karkat having a tantrum on the floor, his aloof act completely forgotten. Finally, she noticed that Sollux had a smidgen of gold painting his cheeks and a mocking smile directed at Karkat, even when his lookstubs kept moving repetitively to the filial pail next to the other troll. Kanaya smiled, this journey was getting more and more interesting by the second.

John’s message changed hands while those interested read it. Kanaya didn’t bother with it, the only John she knew was the one from the future, and everything this current John could say seemed irrelevant in comparison. She wondered if current-John had met his future version too. Probably not. Amusingly, both Vriska and Karkat seemed pleased, flustered, and scandalised with the contents of the letter, while the humans simply looked happy. On the other hand, both Sollux AND Terezi were displaying frowning faces now. Intriguing. She had expected Sollux to react poorly to Karkat being so obviously flustered by someone else’s words so soon after their heated pitch moment, but not Terezi. Such marvellous intrigue everywhere. She had just had that thought, that a mysterious figure appeared in a flash of green light. It appeared to be a black carapacian wearing dirty old rags and a stash with the word _MAYOR_ on it. He was also seriously hurt and was bleeding out from a big hole in his midsection area.

“Who’s this guy?” Dave asked.

“The visitor I mentioned earlier,” Rose answered while she busied herself with a glow-worm that had also appeared out of nowhere. “He will be travelling with us, too.”

“Is he dead?” the male human asked again.

Terezi hunched and smelled the carapacian from closer. Then, she poked him gently with her can and the black-skinned humanoid let out a pained groan. Not dead yet but he would be soon, and it would be such a waste. So much warm blood wasted away. Kanaya froze when she realised the direction her thoughts were taking and took a few steps back. She was not hungry, not really, she had drunk quite the amount of multicolour blood in the last hour, after all. However, she was still tempted by the sight of so much blood just in front of her. She tried to stop breathing in an attempt to avoid smelling the odour of metallic, bright red blood. She could not stop for long. Interesting, rainbow drinkers also needed to breathe regularly, then.

“We should be able to get him some help along the way,” Rose was saying at that moment. “But only if we leave immediately. Luckily for him, we have no alternative because Jack will arrive soon.”

“WHAT?!” Terezi screamed.

All the trolls turned to Rose at her comment, included Kanaya, the smell of blood suddenly forgotten. She was a Seer. If Rose was saying that Jack would arrive soon she was not guessing, she knew it was going to happen. That was a bad idea, they were not readier to fight Jack now than the night before. If he found them here, they were as good as dead.

“When I said that the race would be afoot, I was being literal. He will follow our trail and match our speed,” Rose explained. “And, since this is not the ideal scenario for a final showdown, the best we can hope to do is outrun him.”

Did that imply that they would be flighting Jack for one and a half sweeps? Not only would they be travelling through paradox space, in darkness and among horrorterrors, but Jack could catch them and slaughter them at any moment? Well, if they managed to maintain the same speed as him for the totality of their journey, she presumed that they would be safe. Or at least safer than if they remained there. However, that also meant that they would not have much time to organize for the final battle once they reached the new session.

“Sounds to me like it's time to hit the fucking road then,” Karkat declared, always their spiritual leader. “How do we make this thing go, anyway? Sollux had to die to bring us here so I hope you are not suggesting we keep him moving this rock for a sweep and a half.”

“I could do it,” Sollux sulked.

“Yeah, yeah, you are the strongest psionic ever and all that,” Karkat replied without even looking at him, which made him miss the way the other troll brightened at his half-handed comment. “Is there any propulsion system in this meteor that we don’t know about?”

“Maybe there is, I'm not sure,” Rose said, looking a bit confused for the first time. “I can See the most favourable outcome for victory, but not the details to how to get there. However, one good push in the right direction should be all we need.”

“I can help with that!” Aradia offered, brightly. “Sollux, do you think you can lend me a hand? Without leaving the meteor of course.”

“Huh?” muttered Sollux, with the tone of somebody that had been lost in his thoughts until hearing their name.

“They’ll need the biggest push we can give them!” Aradia repeated. “Can you help me?”

“Oh. Yeah, sure,” the other troll answered. “But, Aradia, are you sure you don’t want to come with us?”

“I can’t, I have things to do out there,” she insisted. “I will be fine, don’t worry about me!”

Kanaya almost facepalmed at her comment, why was Aradia always so self-centred? Kanaya knew that she could be better than this, but sometimes it looked like she did not care to try. Poor Sollux, it was painful to watch.

“And are you sure that you are fine with me staying?” he kept asking.

“Of course! You already did your role, Sollux, whatever you do from now on is your own decision!” Aradia replied with a big smile. “It will probably be better for you this way. You will be able to be alive again, and if you had come with me you would had gotten tired of tagging along, eventually.”

“But…” the gold-blooded troll protested.

“It’s time we part ways, Sollux,” Aradia reaffirmed with a kind smile.

“Oh,” Sollux whispered with a sad expression in his face.

That was distressing, it was almost heartbreaking. Kanaya did not know exactly what kind of relationship did Aradia and Sollux have these days but she knew that they had been moirails a long time ago. Then, Aradia died by Sollux’s hand under Vriska mind-control, and the situation become complicated. She did not know if they had officially broken their moirallegiance after that or not, but even if that had not been the case, it was certainly broken now. However, it was clear that Sollux still had feelings for her, while Aradia was, at most, only fond of him. Like how someone can be fond of an old toy or a well-loved book. Loved enough to keep it with you, but not really important or needed.

“What, so just one push is going to last three years?!” Karkat asked, suddenly. “Let alone outrun Jack?! That’s bullshit!”

Kanaya blinked and looked at her friend. As a player with the aspect of Space, his comment was almost heretic. He was not that stupid; she knew he wasn’t. But then why was he asking such an irrelevant question?

“Calm down KK, it should be fine,” Sollux replied with an annoying tone, rolling his thinkpan in a way that would indicate him rolling up his lookstubs if he still had them. “You won't slow down.”

“How the fuck do you know that?!” Karkat insisted.

Sollux let go a frustrated groan then, and Karkat’s shoulders suddenly relaxed. Oh. _That_ had been Karkat’s goal from the beginning. Kanaya smiled while she realised that Sollux did not look sad anymore. Instead, he was clearly annoyed and frustrated with Karkat’s apparent stupidity. It was actually such a poor act if someone knew where to look. It was clear, though, that Sollux had not noticed that Karkat had just tricked him into forgetting his sadness, momentarily.

“Troll Isaac Newton told him,” Rose answered with a monotonous tone but an amused shine in her eyes. She had also figured out the ruse, then.

“Ok, whatever, let's just get on with it," Karkat shrugged, clearly not interested in keep arguing now that he had accomplished his goal.”

Sollux, Aradia and Rose moved to the edge of the meteor, getting ready to launch the rock in the correct direction. Meanwhile, the rest of them turned back to the carapacian that was still unconscious on the floor.

“Should we do something with the Mayor?” Karkat asked. “Does anybody have something we could use to bandage his wound?”

Kanaya looked at her own bandage in her torso. Her wound did not hurt anymore but she was hesitant of removing her scarf so soon. She was definitely not hurting anymore but she did not want to reopen her wound and bleed out. She did not even know if rainbow drinkers could bleed but it was not the moment to experiment. No, her scarf needed to stay on her torso for now. However, it was quite long, maybe she could sacrifice a bit of it for a better cause. The scarf was already ruined with her blood anyway.

“What is he the mayor of, anyway?” she heard Dave ask while she was retracting her lipstick from her Strife deck. “It kinda looks like he just made that sash himself.”

“He's the duly elected mayor of the fruity rumpus asshole factory, and he just cut the ribbon to a brand-new museum full of priceless shut-the-fuck-up,” was Karkat’s amusing response.

“Ok, you guys can keep arguing if you like, but I’m going to send you on your way now,” Aradia announced. “Then, after you leave, I should be able to buy you a little more time. I will try to slow down Jack for a while,” she offered. “It won’t be for very long, but it’s the best I can do!

“That should help us greatly,” Rose said. “Thank you, Aradia.”

“You’re welcome!” she replied with a huge smile. “Are you ready, Sollux?”

Kanaya did not hear his answer over the sound of her chainsaw cutting the excess length of her scarf, keeping intact the part bandaging her torso. She quickly put away her weapon, afraid of it flying away when they began moving, and offered the violet cloth to Karkat. He smiled at her and quickly applied it to the wound of the carapacian. Just then, the meteor began moving at high speed and Kanaya had to crunch down to lower her centre of balance. The Green Sun was getting smaller behind them at a quick speed, but not as fast as it had grown on their way to it. They were going fast but not as fast as before. Sollux’s ghost was standing on the edge of the meteor, looking back to where Aradia had been moments before. He looked sad but this time he was not bleeding out or screaming from excruciating pain, so Kanaya count it as an improvement. She focused on Rose then, who was walking towards them.

“How is he?” she asked to Karkat and Terezi, that were trying to bandage the carapacian's torso.

“Bad, I don’t know how resistant are his species, but probably he won’t last long,” Karkat answered, who among the trolls was the best at first-aid treatment.

“We will reach a dream bubble in a few minutes and we will find someone there that will heal him,” Rose explained. “However, I recommend that we move inside to a safer place. Preferably, we want to avoid stepping out of the meteor without realising it once inside the dream bubble, and end up trapped there.

“Wait, can that actually happen?” Karkat asked. “And what the fuck is a _‘dream bubble’_?!”

“I will explain inside, if you don’t mind,” Rose insisted. “We should bring our hurt friends with us, too.”

With that, she gestured to the carapacian and Sollux’s body with her hand. Terezi was the first to react, she grabbed the carapacian and began walking towards a transportalizer in a far corner of the part of the meteor’s surface where they were at the moment. Vriska called Sollux and somehow convinced him to bring back his own dead body using his psionics and mind-controlled Gamzee to walk by himself. Kanaya was not paying attention to them anymore, her lookstubs focused on something in the direction the meteor was travelling towards. In the distance there was a sphere with a reddish colour floating in the middle of the blackness.

“What is that?” she asked, signalling the weird sphere floating in the darkness of paradox space.

“That’s the dream bubble I was talking about,” explained Rose. “Come on, we should be inside before we get there. I’m not sure how the bubble will affect our physical reality.”

They agreed and, one by one, stood on the pedestal to be transported inside. Kanaya only had a couple of seconds to observe her surroundings before she was pushed out of the way by Sollux’s transportation. Then, she could only see that they were in an area that she did not recognize, a large block with some strange machinery and a pile of soft plushies in a corner, before a red gelatinous surface appeared through the furthest wall and kept moving towards them. Whatever that was, it was able to move through walls, floor, furniture and living beings as if it were not tangible at all. Just a moment later, Kanaya felt it go through her, leaving a weird wet sensation behind but not causing any apparent damage to her. Around her she could still see her friends and the two humans, but the block was changing from monotonous grey walls to a floor covered in tall grass and a sky made of a fluorescent pattern that reached as far as the lookstub could see. Examining their surroundings with more detail, Kanaya could see some colourful glass sculptures among the grass, and a huge fishbowl with a castle inside of it far away, almost in the limit of her sight. She checked the sky again and realised that it was made of what looked like fluorescent crystal shells. Even the air had changed from the stuffiness and charged air of the the meteor interior to the fresh and salty smell of the ocean.

“This is LODAG,” she heard Sollux said, next to him. “The Land of Dew and Glass; Feferi’s planet.”

She looked around again and realised that she had actually been in this planet once during their game, in one of their team meetings. She had found ironic that a sea dweller’s planet had less water that her own. This planet was beautiful in a strange way, but it had been destroyed by Jack Noir a long time ago.

“But Jack destroyed all our planets,” commented Terezi, while she gently dropped the carapacian to the floor with Karkat’s help. “How is this possible?”

“It’s clear to me that this is not really Feferi’s planet,” Vriska deduced, looking around with fascination. “How did you call this, Lalonde? A dream bubble?”

“Exactly,” she confirmed. “This is not the real planet but the memory that somebody has of it.”

“Indeed, it’s actually my memory,” a voice answered from behind them.

Everyone turned around, some of them with their weapons in hand. In front of them stood two trolls that they knew very well: Eridan and Feferi. They were undoubtedly the same trolls they knew, but they were both wearing strange God Tier clothes and their lookstubs were completely white. Their lookstubs looked exactly like Sollux’s ghost right one. So, they were ghosts, too.

“Feferi?! Eridan?!” Karkat exclaimed. “But you were dead! Both of you!”

The two ghosts seemed surprised by Karkat’s reaction at first but recovered quickly.

“You are Alpha Kar, then,” Eridan said. “I’m glad there is still one of you alive, at least.”

Karkat turned to him in an angry snarl and pointed at him with his sickle.

“Don’t call me Kar! Don’t call me anything!” he yelled. “You lost that privilege when you killed Feferi and Kanaya!”

There was clear hurt in Karkat’s voice and his lookstubs looked unsurprisingly a bit watery, but the sickle in his hand didn’t tremble at all. Sometimes it was hard to remember that Karkat had trained is body more than anybody else to compensate for his short height, his non-combative biology and the lack of natural defences. Everyone had underestimated him in the end, because compared to the other overpowered trolls, he still was one of the weakest of their group. The fact that he was always wearing his big heart in his sleeve and is emotions on his face also contributed to people underrating his prowess in battle. However, Karkat never lacked courage and he was always determined to put himself between any danger and his friends, no matter the cost. In Kanaya’s opinion, that mindset deserved far more respect that being hatched with strength or extraordinary powers. She walked towards him and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Karkat, he is not our Eridan,” she told him softly. “The Eridan from our session never reached God Tier level, remember? He is an Eridan from a doomed timeline.”

Karkat’s lookstubs went huge at hearing her, and he turned to look at her before focusing back on Eridan again. The ghost looked ashamed and sad at the revelation of what an alternative version of himself had done.

“For what is worth, I am sorry Kar,” he apologised. “Even if it was not me, I can see how that could have happened in other circumstances.”

“No, Kanaya is right. It was not you,” Karkat answered, lowing his weapon. “Sorry for accusing you without any reason.”

Eridan’s ghost nodded but he did not seem happier to hear that. Kanaya wondered what could have gone so wrong in their timeline that had caused the dead of two God Tiers. As far as Kanaya knew, God Tier players could only die by heroic or deserved causes. Maybe it was better not to know.

“Oh! What had happened to them?!” Feferi’s ghost exclaimed when she saw their injured members.

“We are running from a dangerous enemy at the moment,” Rose explained, taking a step forward. “They were hurt in our escape. We were hoping you could help us.”

Feferi nodded and knelt near Sollux’s body. She put a hand on his chest but took it out almost immediately.

“I can’t help him anymore, he is already dead,” she said with a sad tone. “My powers allow me to heal others, but I can’t revive anybody, I’m sorry.”

“Hey, don’t worry Feferi, it’s not your fault,” Sollux's half-ghost replied, quickly. “I already knew that I was dead.”

Feferi raised her eyes to look at him, possibly stunned to find a ghost with them. Then, she looked back at the body of the dead troll for a moment before turning back to the ghost with a thoughtful expression on her face.

“Are you the original ghost of this body?” she asked while gesturing to it.

“Yes, or at least I think so,” Sollux nodded.

“Have you people tried to resuscitate him already?” Feferi asked then to the rest of them.

“Sollux died at the beginning of our game and he was already resuscitated once,” Terezi explained. “He already used his extra live.”

“In our session, our Sollux had two half-ghosts and for that reason we could resuscitate him twice,” was the reply from Feferi’s ghost.

So, it was true then, Sollux could be resuscitated for a second time. Now that she thought about it, Aradia had also mentioned something about him being alive if he stayed in the meteor. Kanaya looked at Sollux’s half-ghost and realised that everybody was looking at him. Karkat in particular had a smug look in his face.

“I knew it!” he exclaimed with a huge smile before turning towards Sollux. “I. Told. You. So!”

Then, Karkat began laughing so hard that he had to put a hand on a glass sculpture to keep his balance. It was a weird laugh, maybe a bit hysterical, but Kanaya empathised with what Karkat must be feeling. They had lost so many trolls already that the notion of actually bringing back one of them was an incredible relief. Particularly for Karkat, who had the tendency of condemning himself for everything tragic that had happened to them, and had also been friends with Sollux for sweeps. Not to mention the pitch tension that Kanaya was still sure existed between them.

“Oh, shut up, KK!” Sollux protested. “Nobody founds you funny!”

“I do,” Dave replied with a malicious smile. “I specially find him funny when he is making tantrums about stupid and common things like buckets.”

With that, Karkat stopped laughing and began arguing with them. It was quite amusing how Sollux AND Dave insisted on messing with Karkat at each opportunity. Those two were in fact more alike that should be expected of two members of different species. Kanaya ignored the trio bickering behind her and turned back to Feferi.

“Can you please heal the carapacian?” she asked her. “I don’t know how long he still has.”

“Sure,” Feferi nodded and moved toward the other body. “But I recommend that someone of you revive Sollux soon, if he is still a ghost when you leave this dream bubble he will have to stay. Ghosts can physically enter the bubbles, but they can’t leave.”

Oh, that was useful information. Especially because they did not know how big the bubble was or how long it would take them to physically pass through it. Looking around, it seemed huge, but Kanaya had the suspicion that, like in dreams, space was not a real constant inside these bubbles. Therefore, they had to revive Sollux soon, and to do that, someone had to kiss him.

“So, who is offering to kiss the dead guy?” Terezi asked with a huge smile.

“I am NOT kissing a guy,” Dave said immediately. “Sorry, it’s not personal, dude, you seem a nice guy. I’m just not like that.”

“For Gods’ sake, Strider!” Karkat protested. “Are you saying that you can’t kiss him because of your stupid _‘not a homosexual’_ human thing?!”

“You know about that?” the human asked, clearly surprised. “Wait, is it not a troll thing, too?”

“Yeah, John explained it to me. We had an extensive debate about the topic,” the troll answered. “And no, it is not like that to us, there is no such distinction in troll’s culture. Another proof that we are more advanced and intelligent that your pinky monkey-like species.”

“Nops, I don’t want to know,” the male human protested, shaking his head. “The words _‘John’_ and _‘homosexual’_ should never be pronounced near me. I’m allergic to that combination. They are my kryptonite. I will die if I hear them again. You don’t want to be responsible for the dead of someone as young and handsome as me, right Karkat?”

Kanaya stopped listening to them, again, and turned to Sollux to offer him an apology. They should really get into it as soon as possible.

“I am sorry Sollux, but I am afraid that if I try to revive you, I would end up sucking all the remaining blood in that body instead of kissing it,” she justified. “I am still not used to be a rainbow drinker.”

“Didn’t you do that already?” the troll asked with an amused expression. “I saw the bit marks on its neck, you know.”

“Well, I am not kissing a dead body either! And even less this loser’s body!” Vriska declared while she was busy releasing Gamzee from his ties.

Kanaya felt the almost uncontrollable urge to get out her chainsaw again and finish the clown troll right there and then. She did not know what game was Vriska playing, but releasing Gamzee was a bad idea.

“What the fuck are you doing with Gamzee?!” Karkat asked, wisely. “Don’t let him go! Do you want to die?!”

“Relaaaaaax, grumpynubs,” Vriska replied. “I have him under control.”

She finished releasing the purple-blooded troll, but he did not move from the spot. Then, with a snap, Vriska decaptchalogued a chair and a drink from her sylladex and sit down on it. With another snap, Gamzee had a huge leaf in his hand and moved next to her chair, providing some shadow. She looked relaxed and indifferent to everything happening behind her. Kanaya did not know why she kept getting surprised about her obnoxious attitude.

“I already know who is going to revive you and it’s not me,” was Rose’s excuse. Kanaya was sure that it was an excuse but she was glad anyway, she did not want to see the human kissing anyone, if possible. “I don’t want to risk changing the outcome to one less favourable, sorry.”

“Thank you, everyone! I’m so glad to see the efforts all of you are putting into this for my sake!” Sollux exclaimed sarcastically. “Can you do it, Feferi, please? Last time it was our Feferi the one that revived me.”

“I am sorry, Sollux, but I am dead already,” the ghost girl said, getting up from the floor. “It wouldn’t work. Your friend is fine now, by the way.”

“Great! Of course it would not work!” Sollux protested dramatically. “I am as doomed as ever!”

Kanaya looked around. Discounting the people that had refused to kiss him and Gamzee, for obvious reasons, there were only two more options now. And she knew which one she preferred. She looked at Terezi, and somehow the other girl knew it and also understood what she was thinking because her smile turned malicious.

“I kissed Tavros earlier, so I have already accomplished my civil duty for the day!” she exclaimed jovially.

Kanaya smiled. With her refusing to kiss the dead troll, there was only one option left. She looked to Karkat and was pleased when she saw his cheeks turn scarlet. How amusing.

“That is the worst excuse ever, Terezi!” Karkat protested. “I kissed Kanaya before, too! I am sorry Kanaya, by the way, but I was trying to revive you.”

“I appreciate it, Karkat,” she replied with a smile.

“I don’t care who kisses the dead troll, but I can see the end of the bubble already so hurry up!” Vriska yelled then.

Kanaya turned and realised that she was telling the truth, she could see a red wall that reached the sky in the far distance. It seemed to be made of the same strange gelatinous substance that had appeared in the meteor, so she was sure that the other troll was correct in assuming that it was the end of the bubble.

“I can see it, I will have to stay as a ghost because nobody wanted to kiss me,” complained Sollux’s half-ghost in a melodramatic tone. “I knew it was going to end like that someday.”

“Come on, Karkat, didn’t you say that my _‘no homo’_ thing was stupid?” was saying Dave then with a huge smile. “What is your excuse, now? Are you going to let the poor guy die? Again?”

“For fuck sake! Shut up! Both of you!” Karkat screamed.

With that, Karkat trampled towards Sollux’s body, got down in one knee, grabbed his shirt, pulled the body up, and kissed its mouth angrily. Both that body and Sollux’s ghost began shining in a white light before merging into one body, standing where the ghost had been. Karkat ended alone in the floor while Sollux’s ghost become alive again.

“Holy fuck, he really did it!” Dave said in a tone that sounded scandalized and amused at the same time.

“It worked,” Sollux muttered. “Oh no, I remember was happened now. The fucker! He really blinded me!”

When Kanaya looked at him, she saw that, indeed, both of his lookstubs were still black and empty. Sollux was also missing some of his teeth still, which explained why he did not seem to have any problems to speak without any lisp. However, there was no more blood on the corner of his lookstubs or his mouth. Even the blood in his clothes had miraculously disappeared.

“I can heal your eyes if you wish so, Sollux,” Feferi offered, while approaching him. “I am sorry I couldn’t revive you myself.”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Sollux protested, suddenly looking scared. “If my lookstubs are healed, will the voices and the headaches come back? Because if that’s the case, I prefer to stay blind.”

“We don’t have time for this! The border is getting close, so hurry up!” Vriska warned, approaching them. “Stop complaining, Sollux! Without your eyes, you don’t have your lasers, and it probably affects your psionics too! You are useless to us right now! So, stop being a wiggler and suck it up!”

Kanaya turned her lookstubs to the horizon and realised that, as Vriska had said, the red wall was a bit closer now. It was still quite far away, though.

“Fuck off, you deranged psycho!” Sollux yelled back. “It’s my body and my decision! If I want to be blind, I have all the right to do so!”

“I actually agree with you on that, but I don’t think that being blind is what you really want, Sollux,” Terezi intervened. “You have only been blind for a few hours; you don’t understand yet what it implies and all the difficulties you will have to get used to. I needed sweeps and my lusus’ help to be as proficient as I am now, and you don’t have that time.”

“I will risk it if it means not hearing those damned voices ever again!” Sollux insisted.

The gold-blooded troll seemed really adamant on it, almost desperate. Kanaya could not really emphasise with him because she had not known that the situation bothered him that much. As far as she knew, Sollux had been able to hear the voices of the soon to be departed since he was a grub, but he had never complained about it with her. However, even though they were friends, they were not really that close. She supposed that it would have been natural for him to not show a weakness like that in front of someone higher in the hemospectrum, like her.

“So, if you knew for sure that the voices would not come back, would you like to have your eyes healed?” Rose interrupted.

“Well, yeah,” he nodded “If I can have my sight back without the voices and deadly headaches, of course I would do it!”

“We are running out of time here, we have to make a decision!” Vriska insisted. “It would really be faster if I mind-controlled him.”

Sollux visibly gritted with tension when he heard her making that suggestion. He had good reasons too, with his past history with Vriska’s powers.

“No, Vriska, not fucking mind-controlling anyone here!” Karkat screamed, going as far as to put himself between Sollux and her. "With the exception of Gamzee, keep controlling him for a sweep an a half! It's an order from your leader!"

“Don’t be such a pissygrub, Vantas!” Vriska growled. “It’s for his own good! He will thank me later!”

“KK…” Sollux growled, clearly annoyed to be defended.

“NO MIND-CONTROLLING!” Karkat yelled with a furious look and completely ignoring Sollux’s complain. He looked ready to fight her if needed.

Vriska looked back at him with an angry expression and letting go a threatening growl, originating in the back of her shout sphincter. It was quite an aggressive sound, especially when coming from somebody higher on the hemospectrum. Usually, a growl like that would be enough for a lowblood to back down, but Karkat did not react at all. Instead, he growled back at her with a deeper sound that sounded as threatening as hers. For a moment Kanaya was sure that the situation was going to escalate to a proper fight and she prepared her lipstick again. However, Terezi smacked Vriska’s arm and the troll stopped growling. She backed down and throw her arms in the air, complaining loudly.

“Fine! Let your loser boyfriend do whatever he wants! It’s not like we need everyone’s power to win this game!!” she yelled. “I will have to carry all the weight of the final battle myself, as usual! That’s what I get for trying to help!”

With that, she went back to her chair to pout and finish her drink, ignoring Sollux and Karkat screaming at her that they were NOT dating. Kanaya was actually surprised by the blue-blooded reaction. It was not usual for Vriska to back out of an argument. She checked Terezi for a moment and saw that she was smiling softly while looking at Vriska. Oh, she had not thought of that possibility.

“Terezi, do you think you could See the outcome of Sollux’s decision?” Rose asked then, focusing everyone back to the topic. “It’s out of my capabilities, but your skills are perfect for it.”

Terezi turned to her, surprised for a moment before looking towards Sollux with an unsure expression.

“I don’t know, I was never a good Seer,” she confessed. “And after needing John to come back in time to fix my mess, I probably should stay out of it.”

“Don’t be such a pillock, Terezi!” Vriska scolded from her seat. “You did it with me before so you can do it now! Stop being so hesitant! The wall is almost here, we don’t have time for doubts!”

Regardless of the rudeness in Vriska’s voice, it seemed to be what Terezi needed because she straightened her posture pole and her face’s expression transformed into annoyed determination.

“I will do it,” she declared.

With that, Terezi raised a hand to Sollux’s thinkpan front and a point of teal light appeared on her own. Looking closer, it had the shape of a circle with three protrusions forming a triangle. Kanaya had seen that symbol before. She was not sure, but she believed that it was the sign of the Mind aspect. Kanaya decided it was a good moment to check again the distance to the bubble’s external wall, and she was surprised of how quickly it had reached them. Now it was at most at 200 steps from them. She turned back to the others and, a moment later, Terezi took a step back.

“Healing your lookstubs or not, the voices will not come back,” she said with a grave voice. “But if you don’t heal them now, you will die once we reach the new session.”

Sollux looked surprised for a moment before turning towards Feferi with a hopeful expression. She was already reaching for him, before he even had to ask. Her hands glowed white in contact with his eyelids for a few seconds and then the external wall of the bubble finally reached them. One moment they were on a huge green field and, on the next, they were again inside the meteor, between grey floors and grey walls and strange machinery everywhere. Kanaya turned back to check on Sollux and saw that his lookstubs were not black anymore, but they were not their usual blue and red colour either. They were yellow with black gander bulbs, exactly the same as the rest of the trolls in the block.

“I can see again, but it’s different,” Sollux said, looking around with narrowed lookstubs. “The colours are weird.”

“Your eyes are yellow, Sollux,” Kanaya said.

“What? No! They are not!” the troll said before taking out a shining throwing-star from his strife deck and looking at his reflection. “What the fuck? I look so weird!”

“Excellent!” Vriska growled, annoyed. “You took so long in making a stupid easy decision that Feferi couldn't heal your eyes completely! Now you are still useless!”

“Can you use your psionics, Sollux?” Terezi asked, looking at him anxiously.

Blue and red electricity appeared in Sollux hand, surrounding his throwing-star, making it float in the air for a few moments before falling to the floor. Reading Sollux’s face, it was clear that he had not released his psionics voluntarily. He extended his hand towards the object a second time and it floated a bit again before falling down.

“Fuck!” he yelled. “I haven’t had problems with my psionics like this since I was a grub!”

He looked really frustrated, which was understandable. Kanaya herself had found herself in a body a bit different than what she was used to the last time she awoke. It was a frustrating experience.

“Did I fail again?” Terezi muttered, clearly perturbed with that unexpected turn of events.

“Maybe it will get better with time,” Kanaya suggested. “You died after overexerting your psionics twice in two hours, and we waited a bit of time before resuscitating you. Maybe you just need time to fully recover.”

“At least your psionics are the correct colour now,” Karkat added. “And now you don’t look as freakish as usual, Captor.”

It was clear that even when she and Karkat were trying to encourage him, their words seemed to have the opposite effect. Sollux turned to them angrily and threw his throwing-star towards the opposite wall with his hand. It did not reach the full distance and it fell to the floor, useless.

“What do you know?!” he exclaimed. “My psionics had never been this weakened, they were always on full power or nothing at all! Neither of you have ever had psionics, you could not understand what this feels! Let me the fucking alone!”

And with that he stormed out. Everyone else looked at him leave in an awkward silence for a moment until Vriska let out a short, uncomfortable laughter.

“What a loser!” she said. “Well, we all had a long day, so I suggest we rest for now. Unless is there anything else in our near future that we should worry about, Lalonde?”

“Not that I can see,” was her answer.

“Perfect! I will leave the humans to you, then,” she told them. “I have to figure out where I can put this clown, somewhere that he can be restrained. We can reagroup and plan ahead tomorrow. See you, losers!”

And with that and a rude gesture, she and Gamzee disappeared around the corner. That left their group reduced to two humans, an unconscious carapacian, and three trolls.

“This is my respiteblock, I guess the Mayor can stay here for now,” Terezi said then. “I don’t think I have a place suitable for the humans, though.”

“They can stay in my sector for today, I have lots of empty space and a lot of pillows that can be used as a sleeping platform,” Kanaya offered. “If it is fine with you both, of course. We can figure out better accommodations later, once we all have rested properly.”

“It sounds perfect, Kanaya,” Rose agreed with a smile. “Thanks.”

“Yeah, it’s cool,” Dave confirmed.

With that, Kanaya began walking, leading the humans out of Terezi’s area and toward her private section of the meteor. However, she stopped when she noticed that Karkat had not moved yet.

“Karkat?” she called him.

“We have to do something with the bodies,” Karkat replied in a sad, tired voice. “Feferi, Nepeta, Equius, and Tavros deserved better. And Eridan’s body will stink soon.”

“Gamzee took the bodies away,” said then Terezi. “I saw them in that weird hallway of terror, each of them in a container like it was a fucking museum.”

She looked angry, tired, and sad. Probably all of them did, even the humans. It had been a stressing 24 hours.

“It can wait a few hours, Karkat,” Kanaya said in a gentle tone. “We all need rest. We will take care of it tomorrow, together.”

Karkat looked at her with the sad expression of someone lost and Kanaya felt a sudden spike of pity for him. She put her arm around his back and gently lead him and the humans outside of Terezi’s respiteblock. They walked in silence down all the stairs and hallways leading to the block with thirteen transportalizers, twelve in a circle and one on the centre. Kanaya led Karkat to the transportalizer to his sector and hugged him for a moment. He had not said anything since they had left Terezi’s respiteblock, and he looked incredibly tired and sad.

“Go, block your section from inside and get some rest,” she ordered him, gently. “I will message you first thing tomorrow when I wake up, okay?”

He looked at her and nodded, still not saying a word. In an impulse, Kanaya put her hands on his cheekblades, and bend down to kiss his thinkpan front. It was quite a pale gesture by her part, but after everything they had gone through, all of them needed a bit of emotional support. Karkat looked at her with hopeful, wishful ganderbulbs and smiled softly at her. Kanaya felt her heart made a painful squeeze.

“Good day, Kanaya” he muttered.

And with that, he turned around and disappeared using his transportalizer.

“I never thought I would see the day when Karkat Vantas remained quiet for more than a minute,” she heard someone mutter behind her.

For a moment, she felt an uncontrollable urge to defend Karkat and hurt the one that had criticized him. However, she reminded herself that the humans had just arrived and did not know anything that had happened to them. They also lacked cultural context. Their only interaction with her species had been through a screen in a chat log that could never transmit the complexity of a troll’s emotions. She turned back to Rose and Dave, and guided them toward the transportalizer to her area of the meteor with a gesture.

“It had been a hard day for us, Dave,” she tried to explain once they were in the principal hall that lead to her respiteblock. “How would you feel if you saw your friends kill each other again and again? How would you behave if, in the deeps of your mind, you felt responsible for their murderous behaviour?”

She stopped for a moment to move a huge, heavy box over the transportalizer, blocking the access from outside. For a moment she was tempted to leave it open in the case that Karkat needed her, but she was very aware that Gamzee was still alive. Maybe Vriska had him on a short leash for now, but she did not trust her enough to leave herself and her guests vulnerable to be killed again.

“What?! But it was not his fault!” Dave complained. “I mean, I have not known him for long, but it’s clear that the dude is all bark and no bite. He would never hurt his friends!”

It was nice to hear that from the alien’s mouth. She was not surprised that Karkat’s big heart and good intentions had managed to be transmitted through the otherwise cold communication system that was Trollian. Not even Karkat’s constant cursing and bitching was enough to hide his protective emotions. It was clear that for all of his mocking, Dave Strider actually liked Karkat.

“Nobody is saying that he was actually culpable of it, Dave,” Rose answered. “I think that what Kanaya is saying is only that he _feels_ that is his fault.”

“But it wasn’t!” he insisted.

“Tell him that next time you see him, please,” Kanaya asked him with a tired voice. “He won’t believe you, but maybe if it’s all of us saying it, he would stop blaming himself for everything. Eventually.”

Dave looked surprised at hearing that, but he nodded quickly before he began rambling, using stupid metaphors to express how many times he would tell Karkat that it was not his fault. It was comforting, in a way, even if Kanaya was too tired to make an effort to understand what he meant with all those ridiculous comparisons. His feelings about the topic were clear, at least. Kanaya led them to two empty blocks that were next to hers. They were not exactly respiteblocks, but they would have to work for today.

“You can use these respiteblocks,” she told them. “There was no furniture when we came to the meteor and we didn’t have time to alchemize anything for long-term accommodation. However, I put all my spare pillows and fabric rolls in several piles there. Feel free to use them as a resting platform if you need it.”

“Thanks, Kanaya, we appreciate it,” Rose said.

“Yes, thanks,” Dave agreed.

“My respiteblock is the next one,” she told them while pointing to her door. “Let me know if I can help you with anything. You also have my trollian, so send me a message when you wake up and we will go to find the others.”

“Okay, good night!” Dave said before entering the block, leaving her alone with Rose.

“Good night, Kanaya,” she also said with a smile.

“Rest well,” Kanaya answered.

She finally proceeded to enter her respiteblock and jumped on the first pile she saw without even taking the time to undress. She was so tired, but her body was jittery, as if she needed to be ready to fight for her life at any moment. She reminded herself that she was safe, Jack could not get to her anymore, nobody could get to her in her private section, and nobody inside it would want to hurt her. She was safe, she was fine, she was alive. Her friends were safe too, they were alive and together, everything would be fine. Even though she had lost the matriorb and died, she was still alive and she would figure up something. She would fix it, all of them would. She was not alone. For the first time in days, she relaxed and let her guard down. The moment she did, she felt himself crying and sobbing into her pile.

She fell asleep hours later, with tears still in her face.


	3. G8me plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure about this chapter, it was supposed to advance further in the plot, but Vriska decided that her personal drama was more important. Please, let me know what you think of it.  
> It would also be wonderful if someone could explain to me how can I add the Homestuck skin to the pesterlog's conversations. I tried but it didn't work.  
> Thanks to those that have left comments, kudos or bookmarks already, when the plot had barely begun yet!
> 
> **Edit 05/11/20** : skin added in all pesterlogs and some small corrections

Vriska couldn’t sleep. She had gone back to her sector with Gamzee hours ago and left him sleeping in one of her empty secret blocks. She had made sure that there was no way he could escape before moving a huge machine in front of the sealed door.

She was now in her respiteblock, behind two closed doors that could only be opened with two different passwords. She was not worried about the clown, even if he somehow managed to break free and reach her, she would only need to mind-control him again. No, that was the least of her worries. She just couldn’t sleep; she was too excited for it. After all, John had come back from a doomed timeline under Terezi’s orders only to save her life. That was an inscrutable proof that these losers needed her to win this game. She was not surprised, actually, only glad that someone had finally recognized her talents. She had so much to do, there was no time to sleep.

But, what should she do first?

Ok. As Marquise used to say, or at least write in her journal, first step of any plan is reconnaissance and gathering information. She got up of her pile of dices and broken 8 balls and opened one of her treasure chests. She took out one of her magic 8 balls and brought it with her to sit back on her pile. She had questions that needed answers and her magic balls had always been useful.

Where to begin, though? What would her ancestor have done in her place?

Well, she doubted that someone as intelligent and cunning as Marquise Spinneret Mindfang would have ever found herself in her situation. But if Marquise was here, she would probably begin at the beginning.

“Did Terezi kill me in the previous timeline, when John didn't intervene?” was her first question.

She looked into the hole and saw the word ‘ _YES_ ’ appear there. Well, she already knew that, but it was always good to test the ball with questions that she already knew the answer to before asking the important ones. Now, she needed a question which it's answer was no.

“Did I die Heroically?” she asked again.

The next answer appeared almost immediately, and as expected it was ‘ _NO_ ’. Of course, she had already known that fact. There was nothing heroic in being backstabbed. However, she was God Tier, and it was not exactly easy to kill her. If it hadn’t been a heroic death, there was only one option left.

“Was my death Just?”

‘ _YES_ ’

Well, there was no doubt anymore, not if even that stupid ball could see it. She should be honoured, really. Having a Just death meant that she was doing something significant that other people considered wrong. It was a subjective opinion.

However, that didn’t mean that what she was doing was truly wrong, in an objective way. She was going to kill Jack, if that was not heroic, she didn’t know what would be. She should have been flattered instead of being condemned to die without a proper explanation. Unless…

“Did I die a Just death because I killed Tavros?”

‘ _NO_ ’

Ok, so killing Tavros had not been considered bad, or at least not by the Sgrub standards.

Then, why was she still feeling remorse about that?

It was unnatural, she was a troll and a blue-blood even. As such, she was supposed to cull low-bloods and other lower beings by the hundreds without feeling guilty about it. She had actually done that for sweeps during her FLARP campaigns, all to feed her lusus. It was not something she was actually proud of, but she hadn’t had any option; it was them or her. She had never felt remorse for those losers, though. However, killing Tavros had felt different.

Maybe it was because she didn’t have to do it?

Her lusus had been dead for a perigee at that point, and her sprite didn’t eat anymore, so she technically didn’t need to kill anyone to feed her. She had not killed him because she needed to, but because she wanted to. Maybe that was why it had felt so weird afterwards, she could not use the excuse of needing to feed her lusus to justify her actions. However, Tavros had deserved it. She had given him hundreds of opportunities to get stronger, to be better, but, instead, he had run away every time, like the coward he was! He was so infuriating and made her so mad that, in the end, seeing him trying to stop her from becoming a true hero, being brave at least only to try to kill her, had been too much.

Yet, it had been ridiculously easy to kill him. After all those sweeps annoying her and refusing to take any change of improvement, everything ended in a second. It was almost anticlimactic, all that effort for nothing. Still, it didn’t explain why she felt so guilty and empty afterwards, though. She had even gone crying to John in a vague hope of comfort.

It didn’t make any sense! She was a troll, the descendent of the infamous pirate Marquise Spinneret Mindfang! She shouldn’t feel remorse for killing a weakling, it was in her genes! She was a hero! She did NOT deserve a Just death!

“Why did Terezi killed me?”

‘ _TRY AGAIN’_

Aaaargh! These balls were so annoying sometimes! She tried to think of a way to ask the same, but that could be answered with yes or no. She had no clue of why Terezi killed her, so it was hard.

“Did Terezi killed me in vengeance for Tavros’ dead?”

‘ _NO_ ’

“Did Terezi killed me because she hates me?”

‘ _NO_ ’

“Did Terezi killed me in a whim?”

‘ _NO_ ’

“Did Terezi killed me because she had become crazy?”

‘ _NO_ ’

“Did Terezi want to kill me before she actually did it?”

‘ _NO_ ’

“What was Terezi thinking?!”

‘ _TRY AGAIN’_

That was soooooooo annoying!! It was a shame that she didn’t have her white cue ball anymore. Although, knowing who was behind it, maybe it was better that it was lost. Last time that Vriska used it, she had ended up with half her body destroyed. She had run out of ideas of why Terezi killed her by now, but maybe that was not the most important question anyway.

“Did Terezi make a mistake when she killed me on the last timeline?”

‘NO’

What? That was false! Of course she chose the wrong option! It was Terezi! Both of them had made their mistakes in the past and got revenge on the other, but they never actually tried to kill each other! The only reason that she could think of Terezi killing her would be if she had no alternative.

“If Terezi had not killed me, and instead let me go on our last timeline, would we have been doomed?

‘ _YES_ ’

Ok, that was not what she had expected this time. If killing her had not been a mistake, then why did they all ended dead in that alternate timeline? More specifically, why that alternate Terezi decided that keeping her alive would avoid their doomed fate this time?

“If Terezi had let me go instead of killing me, would have Jack killed us all?”

‘ _YES_ ’

Oh. So she would have lost and then Jack would have find the meteor and killed everyone else.

“Did Terezi knew that letting me go would end with all of us killed?”

‘ _YES_ ’

“Did Terezi use her Mind powers to predict the future of my actions before deciding to kill me?”

‘ _YES’_

Well, that explained it. If Terezi had let her go to fight Jack, all of them would have died. Vriska knew herself enough to admit that there was no way she would have been convinced to stay, and with her highblood resistance, she was not exactly easy to knock out. So, Terezi really didn’t have any other option. Vriska had been so sure that she could win that fight, or at least not die. However, she never thought that her decision would have led to everyone’s death.

How did she miss it? Was she really so full of herself that she went into a suicidal fight without a good plan? Her?

Even Tavros saw that her plan was a mistake and tried to stop her. He had been trying to save her and everyone else from her own stupid ego. For once, he had been trying to do the hard thing for everyone’s sake, to be the hero. Like Vriska had always wanted him to be. And she rewarded him with murder. She felt guilty again.

Vriska let her ball fall on the surface of the pile while she thought about it, where it mixed with her broken balls. That had been a wrong move for her part, it would be hard to find later, if needed. She shrugged; it would be a problem for later, not now.

There was nothing she could do for Tavros anymore; their only option now was to avoid doing the same stupid mistakes that happened last time. No more dead trolls, it was clearly not the way to go. Whatever happened on the doomed timeline, they couldn’t afford letting it happen again this time. She would begin by personally ensuring that no one else died. She was alive, so things were already different. Killing her had not been a wrong move at the time, had actually made them avoid a doomed timeline, but in the end the result had been the same.

So, maybe it was not the fact that she was killed last time, but that her absence had led to the others' failure somehow?

Without her here it would have been only Karkat, Terezi, Gamzee, Kanaya, Sollux, and the humans. And the carapacian, but she seriously doubted that creature could contribute to anything. No, wait, Sollux was not there last time either. So, Krabkat, Terezi, the crazy clown, miss Meddlesome and the stupid aliens. Yeah, not the best team. The only one worth something was Terezi, but she was no leader, especially because she was always letting Karkat play at leadership.

Was that it? Was the lack of a proper leader the only reason they had failed?

She picked up her ball again.

“In the last timeline, did everyone in the meteor failed because they did not have a good leader?”

There was no answer, the screen remained black. It took her a moment to realise that she had picked up a broken ball instead of the only functional magic ball in the pile. Crash. She knew it had been a mistake to let it mix with the others the moment she did it. Resigned, she spent the next five minutes looking for her missing ball. Luckily, it was still on the surface of the pile, so it didn’t take that long to find. She repeated the question again.

“Did everyone in the meteor failed last timeline because they did not have a good leader?”

‘ _TRY AGAIN’_

“Was Karkat the leader of the meteor's team in the last timeline?”

‘ _TRY AGAIN’_

“Did my friends died in the last timeline because a lack of leadership?”

‘ _TRY AGAIN’_

Weird. She was getting more error answers than usual even in questions with yes/no answers. Maybe the ball could not answer specifics of the last timeline? Or her questions were too general?

It had known the answer when she asked about Terezi killing her, though. Well, if she was exact, it had known the answers to questions of events until she died in her last timeline. This was her magic ball after all, she was the only one that could use it, so maybe it had lost its power with her death.

Was there any way to test it?

“Did Terezi wanted me dead in the previous timeline?”

‘ _NO_ ’

“Did Terezi regret killing me in the previous timeline?”

‘ _TRY AGAIN’_

That seemed to be it. She tried other combination of questions for a while, only to be sure, and every time she asked something that happened after her death or that had an answer that was not yes or no, she obtained the same answer again and again: ‘ _Try again’_. It was clear that she was not going to get useful information about the doomed timeline with the 8 ball. She let it fall to the floor and rested fully on her pile.

Was there another way to obtain information from a doomed timeline?

Usually only those that had actually lived, and probably died, in a doomed timeline knew what happened in it. Maybe they would find a ghost of someone from that particular timeline eventually, but with so many possible doomed ones it would be hard. So, only John would be useful to ask, future John in particular, but he was clearly not coming back.

She didn’t blame him. He had come back to the past, changed what was necessary and left. If he had stayed, he could have affected their timeline with his presence and undoubtedly lead them into a different doomed fate. Leaving after changing some crucial things had been the most intelligent approach. If nothing else, that was what convinced her that it had been Terezi’s plan. John was a lot of things, but he was not a tactician.

A tactician. Maybe that was what they lacked last time?

Karkat was good at convincing people to do what he wanted, and in avoiding in-fighting for long periods of time. Kanaya was always gossiping and mediating between all pitch relationships without anyone asking her to do it. Terezi had a good moral compass and knew how to hold her own in a fight, but she was no strategist. Gamzee was annoying, crazy, and he probably played for the other side. Sollux had not been here last time, and even if he had been, he was too disinterested and pessimist to be of much help. He was powerful though, if he managed to get back his psionics before they arrived at the next session, he would be a strong weapon. But a weapon was useless without anyone using it.

Regarding the humans, she did not know them or their abilities enough to determine their usefulness. As far as she knew, Strider was a Knight of Time and was good in a fight, but he was quite stupid. And Lalonde had her moments, like when having a general idea of the best plan to win, but she was clearly bad with the details needed for a careful plan.

So that was it, they did not have anyone qualified to design a well-thought and detailed plan. They had probably winged it when they reached the new session. It was not surprising that everything had gone wrong, it was a miracle they had actually survived that sweep and a half on their own. However, Vriska could easily be their tactician. She was the best at strategy and planning and, after all her experience in FLARP, it would be as easy as stealing a candy from a grub.

She got up again and looked into her chest, looking for something in particular. She had spent all her grubhood in FLARP campaigns. For her it had been more a necessity than a hobby. FLARP was the easiest way to get food for her lusus after all, dead lowbloods didn't exactly grow from the trees.

That didn’t mean that she had not enjoyed the games, though. She had played all types of campaigns: survival games, single-player games, co-ops in teams, treasure hunts, games where she needed to steal, to get a particular information, to kill someone in particular, to manipulate and cause chaos and infighting, or even some campaigns were she had to mediate between teams in war with each other. That last one had been weird and boring and had ended with her killing both leaders and unifying both teams under her own sign. She had been disqualified for it, but it had been so worth it.

However, the fact was that she had experience in all types of campaigns, and she had kept a detailed record of each of them in her FLARP notebooks. It didn’t really matter if she had won or lost the game, she had kept detailed record of all of them. Every plan, strategy and trick learned in those games had been useful for later campaigns, and eventually for her in-real-life manipulation schemes, too.

She had lost some of the notebooks with her hive and her planet in the hands of Jack Noir, but she always kept with her the most relevant ones. She brought them out of the chest and contemplated her current situation.

Eventually they would have to kill someone with the abilities of a First Guardian, which was stronger than Gl’bgolyb, a literally horrorterror. She picked up the notebook of the campaign where she had to kill the strongest purple-blood she had ever meet, and be subtle enough doing it that nobody knew who had been the murderer. She was pretty high in the hemospectrum but killing a purple-blood was no joke. Of course, it could not compare to their current boss level, but the context was similar enough that she might find something useful in there. She put the notebook to the side and contemplated the rest.

Considering the circumstances, she had to somehow survive a sweep and a half in an almost empty rock. More importantly, she needed to make sure that everyone in her team survived and was physically and mentally ready to kill an unkillable boss. She took the notebook of the longest campaign she ever did, when she spent three perigees surviving outside her hive, alone and with the minimum of resources. It had been hard in the beginning, but she got really good at it towards the end. The worst part had been coming back home to a hungry and pissed off lusus.

She put the notebook on the side too, and picked up another, this time from a campaign where she had to keep alive the worst team of sobbing, weak losers ever to exist. When she was done with them, half of the team was in conciliatory relationships with the other half. She almost felt bad for them when she led them directly into her lusus' mouth, once their campaign had finished. At least they went down together, that’s supposed to be romantic, right?

Three notebooks should be more than enough inspiration for her current campaign. She began putting the rest of her journals back into the chest when her eyes fell into the blue cover of one of them. She picked it up and opened it, trying to remember which game was that one about. The memories came back as soon as she saw the code she used in it. This journal was from the only time she had played as an information collector from inside of the enemy's territory. It was not exactly the same situation that she was currently living, but maybe she could find some good ideas regarding how to obtain information of their alternate doomed timeline. Knowing the exact events that had doomed that timeline could be the key to avoid it happening again. Four journals then.

Now, where should she begin?

First things first, she needed a new empty notebook. Luckily for everyone, she always had an empty one buried in her sylladex for occasions just like this. Armed with the notebook and several pens, she looked at her old FLARP notebooks, scattered on the floor in front of her. Probably best to keep the same organisation for this planning, even when it would be the longest and more important campaign that anyone will ever play. Her system worked before, so better to stay with it.

First, she needed the most important thing: a campaign name. It had to be something witty but intimidating, easy to remember but that reflected the importance of the situation. And the most important part: it needed an 8 somewhere. She opened the last page of the notebook and began writing possibilities.

Ten minutes later she had run out of clever references to eight and moved into doggy puns. Fifteen minutes after that, she had crossed half of her previous attempts and moved into phrases with _‘Jack’_ on it. Finally, twenty minutes later she was deciding between two options. However, none of them was satisfying her, there was something missing.

She needed a second opinion. She got up from the floor, cracking her back to a correct position after too much time leaning over her notes on the floor, and sit back on her pile while she decaptchalogued her palmhusk from her sylladex.

arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling gallowsCalibrator [GC] at 89:02  


AG: if you had to choose 8etween _‘Jacksination pl8n’_ or _‘Universal g8me’_ which would you pick?

AG: I like the fusion of jack and assassination 8ut this g8me is 8igger than him

AG: he's also a 8astard and don’t deserve any mention

AG: Terezi?

AG: are you even getting this????????

gallowsCalibrator [GC] is offline

AG: ::::(

AG: are you actually sleeping when there is soooooooo m8ch to do????????

AG: why I'm always the only one th8t caaaaaaaares!!!!!!!!

arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling gallowsCalibrator [GC] at 89:06

That had been a complete waste of time. She sat back again and looked at her candidates. No, none of them would work, she knew there was a perfect name waiting to be discovered. Vriska would not insult it by using a second-grade name, even if temporarily. She didn’t like it, but she had no choice: she would have to begin planning without a proper title.

A perigee ago she would have avoided that situation at all costs because it was bad luck. Now however, she owned luckiness, she had all the luck in paradox space. Title postponed; next step was to determinate the main objectives. She went back to the beginning of the notebook and skipped the first page, which would be reserved for the title, and began writing on the second.

G8ME PLAN

O8JECTIVES

The first one was clearly killing the big boss. He was the responsible for trapping them in their session and blocking them from their prize, and he was trying to kill them. He was also the main problem to solve if they wanted to win the human’s game. Once Jack had been dealt with, everything else should be a walk in the park.

1\. KILL 8ASTAAAAAAAARD!!!!!!!!

Second objective was, of course, wining the game properly this time. What was the point in beating the final boss if you don’t get the final recompense? It had been frustrating enough the first time, never again.

2\. WIN G8ME

Ok. Those were the principal objectives. Killing the boss and winning the game, that was all that was needed. She was not missing anything, right?

She reclined back over her pile while she thought it over. She could not think of anything else they would need to do to win the game. If they knew what went wrong last time, they would be more prepared. She definitively needed to find a way to get all the information possible.

Probably it will have to wait until they got to the new session, and if what Lalonde told them was true, they would not have a lot of time before having to fight the final boss. Well, they had a Time player with them now, in particular one that could travel through time. She was not sure if Strider could send other people to the past or if it was only himself. However, it could be useful. She wrote a note in the margin of the page to remind herself to check how his powers worked later.

Going back to the objectives, maybe she should consider add getting to the new session?

Not only getting there, actually, but to do it with a physical and mentally prepared team. She added two more objectives.

3\. GET TO NEW SESSI8N

4\. KILL MURDER CL8WN

Yeah, it was important to remind herself that Gamzee had gone into a murder spree on them before, and nothing said that he wouldn’t do it again. For now he was contained with her mind-powers but it would be a pain in the nook if she had to keep doing that for a full sweep and a half. Getting rid of him would be the easiest way, but she was not sure that it was a good option. It had been clear by previous events that killing trolls tended to send them into doomed timelines. Maybe it would be better to check with their Seers before making a stupid mistake again.

In any case, killing him would be easy, so it shouldn’t be considered a main objective. She didn’t know what she had been thinking. She crossed the fourth objective from the list.

4\. ~~KILL MURDER CL8WN~~

So, three main things to consider. She turned a page, time to begin.

* * *

A few hours later she had moved from her respiteblock to the bigger block at the entrance of her section. The one with a computer with a register of the meteors' impact in Alternia, and another with the exiles’ server. None of them worked, of course, like half the machinery in the meteor. However, the room was bigger, even with the huge broken glass tube in the centre.

She was sitting in a small pile of 8 balls and dices, with all her old journals and a couple of new ones spread in front of her. She had tried to be organized, but sometimes in the middle of planning murder schemes she remembered something that they would need to ensure happened if they wanted to win the game. Then, that though lead to another and another, until in the middle of that, she got the idea to check if they could get food or other things out from the dream bubbles, which was something more related to the third objective. It was hard to be organized when her mind didn’t work like that.

So, in the end, she had decided to have three different notebooks, one for each objective, in an attempt to keep certain level of order. Now she had three notebooks with random ideas regarding each objective, and three more where she tried to organise those same ideas in a way that made more sense. It was not working, she had only managed to make a bigger mess. She needed a way to see all the relevant information at once, something bigger. The wall at the end of the block looked promising. Just then, her palmshusk biped repeatedly in an annoying way.

gallowsCalibrator [GC] began trolling arachnidsGrip [AG] at 49:75

GC: YOU W3R3 TH3 ON3 TH4T TOLD US TO G3T SOM3 SL33P DUMB4SS

GC: D1D YOU SL33P 4T 4LL??

GC: WH4T 1M SAY1NG OF COURS3 YOU H4V3NT

GC: YOU 4R3 4LR3DY OV3RTH1NK1NG 3V3RYTH1NG R1GHT??

GC: 4ND BOTH T1TL3S 4R3 HORR1BL3

AG: hey Tez, just the tr8ll I needed!!!!!!!!

GC: >:o

GC: WH4T R34LLY??

AG: of course, silly, I need your expertise in something

GC: >:]

GC: HOW C4N TH1S HUMBL3 L3G1SL4C3R4TOR B3 OF H3LP TO SUCH 4N HONOUR4BL3 C1T1Z3N??

AG: this citizen name is Marquise Mindfang, and she is not an honoura8le citizen at all

AG: in fact, she is not even a citizen

AG: she is a pir8

AG: and she is in the most important and dangerous journey of her l8fe!!!!!!!!

GC: 1 S33

GC: 4ND WH4T F3LON13S H4S TH1S F34RSOM3 P1R4T3 DON3 TH1S T1ME??

AG: she has not done any fel8ny in a long time

AG: in fact, she is trying to redeem herself

AG: she is currently carrying a group of refugees to a safe place

AG: she is still fears8me though

AG: ;;;;)

GC: 1TS NOT H3R ROL3 TO D3C1D3 1F SH3 1S 4LLOW3D R3D3MPT1ON

GC: TH4TS TH3 JOB FOR THOS3 PROT3CT1NG TH3 L4W

GC: HOW3V3R

GC: 1F SH3 1S SUCH 4 GR34T 4ND 4CCOMPL1SH3D TROLL WHY SH3 N33DS A L3G1SL4C3R4TOR 1N TH3 F1ST PL4C3??

AG: she doesn’t need any 8oring legislacerator, only one can help her in this matter

AG: only one has the experience and tools for this extremely dangerous 8ut crucial job

GC: >:]

GC: >;]

GC: 4ND WH4T 1S TH4T D4NG3ROUS BUT CRUC14L ROL3??

AG: see, Marquise was ela8or8ing a plan for her mission, 8ut her writing tools were not enough

AG: too much information for soooooooo small space

AG: however, she was contempl8ng this huge empty, 8oring wall in one of her 8locks

GC: >:o

GC: 1M COM1NG!!

AG: ye8h!!!!!!!!

AG: scourge sisteeeeeeeers!!!!!!!!

AG: don’t forg8 your chalk

arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling gallowsCalibrator [GC] at 49:79  


arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling gallowsCalibrator [GC] at 49:80

AG: ::::D

arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling gallowsCalibrator [GC] at 49:80

Vriska captchalogued her palmhusk back into her sylladex and decided to get up from the small pile. Surrounding her, the floor was covered by all her notebooks and sheets of paper with random notes and ideas. She hoped that Terezi could help organize it a bit, at this point even she had problems to find anything useful in that mess.

If Terezi was coming, she needed to unblock the transportalizer to her section. The platform was in a short hallway on the next floor, taking the stairs in the corner of the block. She walked towards them but stopped just before the stairs. On the wall next to the stairs, there was the secret entrance to the small room where she put Gamzee the previous day, maybe she should check on him, just to be sure he was still trapped.

Before opening the door, she used her mind-powers to reach the clown's sponge and make sure he was still asleep, she also sent him a new wave of sleepiness only to be sure. Then, she pushed two hidden buttons in the wall, simultaneously, and a part of the wall moved away. In the small room, Gamzee was resting on the floor, asleep and prong and strut pods still tightly tied. Good.

She closed the door again and walked up the stairs to the entrance. Over the transportalizer there was one of the heavy machines that were everywhere in the meteor. It was too heavy for her to move it, but luckily it was small enough to fit inside her sylladex. She captchalogued it and sent a quick message to Terezi, letting her know that it was open.

Once back in the big block, she stopped in front of the exiles' terminal and pushed buttons at random. Still not working, she didn’t know if it was because there was no energy, if these computers were somehow blocked or if they simply didn’t work so far from any session. She moved to the other computer, which showed the meteor impacts in her old planet.

She wondered how much information about Sgrub and their session was still in those dead terminals, it could be useful to be more prepared for the next one. Maybe their resident hacker could do something about them. At least that way he would be of some use, now that he had stupidly lost one of their most powerful weapons.

“Are those Sgrub terminals?” she heard somebody ask.

She turned to the stairs, where Terezi had just appeared.

“Yeah, this one is the meteors' impact countdown and the other I believe is an exiles’ terminal,” she explained. “They are both dead, though.”

“Maybe Sollux could do something about them,” the teal-blooded troll commented. “They could still have useful information about the sessions.”

“Exactly what I was thinking, my dear legislacerator,” Vriska smiled, happy that they were in the same wavelength.

Terezi smiled her full-face smile and Vriska felt satisfied. That was a much better look on her than the defeated, doubtful face she had the previous day.

“So, where is that boring wall you mentioned, my dear pirate?” Terezi asked, still with the same smile.

“This way,” Vriska answered while turning away.

She brought Terezi back to where she had all her papers and jumped back into her pile. It wasn’t until she was on top of it that she realised there was no space for Terezi to sit on. Her pile was too small to fit them both and, anyway, that idea was a bit too pale.

Not that she would particularly mind it if Terezi decided to sit there, next to her. If it was someone else, she would kill them before they got close to her space, she was not really a pale person, she needed to keep some social distance. Not even Kanaya, who had been her moirail for sweeps, was allowed on a pile with her.

However, Terezi had been her friend since they were grubs, and, even if the other troll still had grudges against her for stupid mistakes that should stay in the past, Vriska still considered her a friend. Maybe the only truly friend she had. So, probably sitting in the same pile wouldn’t be so bad if it was Terezi. It didn’t even had to mean anything, it could be a totally platonic pile-sharing situation.

She was about to offer that option, when her friend decaptchalogued her own pile of dragon plushies next to hers and sit down on it. Oh, Vriska tried to not feel disappointed about it.

“I’m sure you haven’t eaten anything yet, I am right?” asked her friend. “Have you even slept?”

“I’m not hungry,” she protested. “And I will sleep later, this is more important.”

“Vris, it had been more than ten hours since the dream bubble,” Terezi said in a deadpan voice. “Tell me you slept at least an hour, specially after you were the one ordering everyone to sleep.”

Ten hours already? It couldn’t be. Vriska took out her palmhusk and checked the time, it showed an unreal hour. What?! Did her palmhusk break? How had she not noticed that before?

There was no way to know the time so she decided to believe Terezi. It was quite possible that she had spent half day working instead of sleeping without even realising it. It wouldn't be the first time.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she grumbled, a bit ashamed.

Terezi only sighed, decaptchalogued a couple cans of TaB and two sandwiches made of what looked like grubmeat, and offered her one of each. Vriska realised then that she was indeed hungrier than she thought so when her digestion bladder made a complaining sound. She took a can and a sandwich and began eating while Terezi checked her papers.

“Don’t lick them, you will smear the ink!” Vriska warned. “Let me explain what I have been working on.”

She explained her three main objectives and the information and ideas she had collected for each of them, jumping from one idea to another the moment she remembered it. When she finally finished her sandwich, she took the first notebook and began reading aloud what she had missed, jumping to another when she couldn’t find an idea she was sure it was written somewhere.

Terezi didn’t say anything for a while, just listening and processing. However, it wasn’t long before she interrupted.

“Wait, stop, stop,” she said. “You have mentioned _‘destroy Green Sun’_ twice already, and _‘collect food’_ at least five times.”

Vriska squinted her eyes at that. That could not be, right? It was right there in the notebook in her hands that was about _‘getting to new sessi8n’_ , as it should. Only to be sure, she went back to the last notebook she had been reading aloud and noticed that it also had _‘get food’_ there in the section of _‘win g8me’_. Crap. That was a mess.

“We need a better system to keep track of everything,” Terezi sentenced while getting up. “You were right, you clearly need my skills.”

Vriska rolled her eyes, but didn’t complain when Terezi decaptchalogued her colourful chalks. That was the whole point of inviting her here, after all. She got up and stole a blue chalk from the other troll’s prong before transforming into her God Tier form and flying to the top of the wall. Better to use all the space they could. She began writing ‘ _K8LLING JACK_ ’ but Terezi stopped her.

“Wait, we should do it in chronological order,” she said. “And don’t use your quirk, let’s make it easier to read for everyone.”

“Whaaaaaaaat?! My quirk is the easiest one to read!” Vriska complained. “Yours is a lot more troublesome, miss 413. And what do you mean by _‘everyone’_?”

“Well, I assumed you would want to have meetings with the others eventually to properly use all of our resources,” Terezi commented. “Especially Lalonde's abilities, as she is a Seer of Light.”

That actually made sense, how have she not thought about that?

As much as she hated it, Lalonde had already proven that her powers to predict their best outcome could be useful. However, the others would probably not be as resourceful as the Seer. Nevertheless, those meetings sounded like a good way to keep everyone in check and contributing.

“Does it have to be in my private section?” she grumbled.

“Where best to keep all information updated?” insisted her hatefriend. “Now, quit complaining and write the title _‘Survival game’_ on the first column.”

“You changed my title!” Vriska complained, while reluctantly admitting to herself that it was way better than hers. “Stop bossing me around!”

“You are the one that called me here AND stole my chalk,” Terezi answered with a huge grin. “I can’t fly either, so until we get to a height where I can reach, you will be my scribe. Better like this anyway, your organising system is trash.”

“My system works perfectly fine!” she defended herself, still writing on the wall. “But, sure, let’s try your way for now. Don’t lick my notebooks, Terezi!”

The other troll already had her tongue out, ready to mess with Vriska’s nice handwriting, but stopped at her complain.

“Fiiiine, but you will need to read some parts for me, your letters are to small to sniff them properly,” Terezi criticized.

“Sure, just keep your tongue to yourself,” Vriska insisted. “Ok, the title is there, now what?”

“First, let’s divide the wall in three sections, one for each objective,” Terezi instructed. “Here, use red for ‘ _Killing Jack_ ’ next, and for the last part… purple?

“No, not purple” Vriska refused, she hated both that colour and its corresponding blood caste. “Do you have violet? Or fuchsia? Those should be different enough to the ones we already have to make it easy to read.”

Terezi nodded and throw her the mentioned chalks. Then, under Terezi instructions, Vriska separated the wall in three parts and under each title she divided all the information in several subtitles. In the ‘ _Survival game_ ’ section, everything was divided into the category’s ‘ _resources_ ’, ‘ _needs_ ’, ‘ _roles_ ’ and so go on. They did the same for each objective, and Vriska had to admit that it was already looking much more organised and clear this way than with her notebooks. It was easier to avoid repeating ideas when they could clearly see all of them, and having a ‘ _need_ ’ subsection in each objective helped to showcase where they still had work to do.

She was writing about collecting information of the previous timeline in the ‘ _Win game_ ’ part when Terezi stopped reading ideas aloud. She turned towards her, still floating in the air, and saw that her friend was frowning to one of her notebooks.

Was there something in that page she couldn’t read?

She flew down until she could see over her shoulder what was causing so much trouble for her. In the middle of the page there was a sentence written clearly in big handwriting: _‘WHY DID TEREZI KILL ME?!’_. Oh.

“I wanted to ask you about that, but then I got so focused in other things that I forgot it,” she excused herself while eyeing the other troll. “I’m not mad or anything like that, I just want to know where I went so wrong to deserve a Just death.”

Terezi didn’t say anything for a couple of moments, and her shoulders shrank a bit. Her doubtful expression had come back and she was keeping her eyes fixed on the notebook.

“I messed up,” she muttered. “It was clearly a mistake.”

“Wait a moment there!” Vriska argued. “It’s true that it led to a doomed timeline, but I don’t think it was the fact that you killed me what caused it.”

“What are you talking about?” Terezi protested. “Of course it was that! Future-me send John back to fix my stupid mistake! I was blaming you for all the deaths when it had been Gamzee and Eridan’s fault! Even with John's clumsy messages, I still suspected it was you!”

Wow, that was NOT what Vriska had been expecting. She didn’t know that Terezi was feeling so guilty about all that situation, and she hadn’t even killed her this time.

How would she be feeling if she had actually killed her? Did the alternate Terezi felt so guilty, too? Was that why everything went wrong last time?

“But you killed me,” she insisted.

“Thanks for keep reminding me of my mistakes!” Terezi yelled.

“No! I mean, you actually managed to kill me, for real,” she tried to explain. “I’m conditionally immortal, so if it had been a stupid mistake you shouldn’t have been able to properly kill me! It was clearly not a Heroic death, so that means that it was Just. Whatever the reason, I deserved it.”

“Oh,” muttered the teal-blooded troll. “You actually killed Tavros, so maybe it was for that?”

“No, it’s not it, I checked already with my magic ball,” Vriska insisted. “However, I didn’t kill anyone else. So, if it was not for something I did, maybe it was for something I was going to do?”

Terezi tensed up at that, confirming her theory that her friend had used her Mind Seer powers on her and acted in behave of that. She had seen something horrible in their future if Vriska went to fight Jack, and she had done what she had to do to avoid it.

“You used your powers on me, right?” she asked, only to confirm it.

The other troll nodded, still not looking at her and without saying anything else. That was absurd.

“Quit acting like that, Tez! It’s not like you at all!” Vriska nagged, annoyed with her friend’s attitude. “If you are really feeling so guilty about something that another version of you did in a doomed timeline, the least you could do is explain me why she did it!”

There was no other answer from Terezi than hiding her face against one of her dragon plushes. It was worse that she had thought. She had known the other troll for sweeps, and she knew perfectly well that Terezi only did that when she was feeling really bad with herself. That had to stop.

“Tell me what your saw, the consequences if you had let me go,” she ordered in a firm voice she hardly used on her friend. “Then, I will decide for myself if killing me was a mistake or not.”

“I knew I couldn’t stop you without betraying you and stabbing you from behind, I Saw it,” Terezi finally whispered. “If I had tried to knock you out or tying you up, I would have lost our brawl and you would have gone anyway. Nothing would have changed.”

Ok, so it that was as Vriska had thought. Terezi was a good fighter but, as a highblood, Vriska had a higher stamina and pain tolerance. She was also God Tier, while Terezi was not. Additionally, Vriska could use her powers to steal all of Terezi’s luck in battle, if needed. Fighting her in equal conditions would have gone bad for her friend, maybe she would have ended killing Terezi in vengeance without really wanting to. She waited for Terezi to continue.

“There were two options then: letting you go or killing you,” her hatefriend kept explaining. “If I had let you go, you would have gone to confront Jack as planned, but he would have avoided you. Instead, Jack would have follow the smelly trace you left behind to the meteor. Then, he would have killed me and Karkat and brought our bodies to you.”

That… that was the most treacherous, sneaking, trickery fuckery she had ever heard of! The fucker! No respect for proper duel protocol at all! And he had the nerve to kill HER friends and show their corpses off to her like some kind of creepy trophy! Oh, she was going to kill the bastard, she was so going to destroy him, dismember his only arm and kill him with it!

“Did I kill him at least?” she asked, trying to contain her rage. “Did I win my fight with him?”

“I don’t know,” confessed Terezi. “There was some weird interference in my vision, it looked pretty equally matched, but I couldn’t see the end. However, what I’m sure is that you hit him with your best move, and he was still there, like nothing.”

That was bad. So, not only her selfish decision to confront Jack by herself would have led to everyone's death, but she would not have even managed to kill him. Letting her go would have meant that both Karkat and Terezi could have been killed for nothing because Terezi wasn’t even sure that Vriska was going to win in the end. That was why her death was Just. She was going to put everyone in mortal danger just for her egocentrism and her pride.

“You did the right thing,” Vriska decided. “It would have been better to just knock me out, like John did, but if you already saw that it was not possible, killing me was the best solution.”

Terezi finally turned towards her, with an incredulous expression. She seemed really surprised of hearing her say that.

“I was going to kill you,” she insisted. “I was going to stab you in the back.”

“I knew that the moment you span the coin,” Vriska argued back. “That was the real bet there, me letting my guard down and giving you the opportunity to stab me.”

“You didn’t think I was going to do it,” Terezi maintained. “You trusted me not to kill you.”

“That was not it, it was not trust, Terezi, it was arrogance,” Vriska confessed. “I convinced myself that I was doing the rightful thing, so it would not had really mattered if you stabbed me on the back because it would not have been a Heroic or Just death. I would have been revived again and got my revenge on you afterwards.”

That was the problem actually. As the only troll that ascended to God Tier level, she had felt invincible. Letting her guard down was not a problem anymore because she could resuscitate. She was also so sure of her actions that she stopped listening to everyone else. Not that she did it much before that, anyway.

“I killed Tavros because he was trying to stop me from fulfilling my destiny, in his wrong presumption that I was making a mistake,” Vriska kept saying. “It turns out that he was right all along. I was about to doom us all, only to fulfil a self-obsessed wish. I killed him for doing the heroic thing.”

“You were risking your life to kill Jack,” Terezi muttered. “Trying to save someone else instead of only yourself, for a change.”

“I underestimated Jack’s intelligence and I was going in blind, without any plan or strategy,” she countered. “I don’t know why I was so sure that it was the only option. It was just so clear on my mind: I would go out there, kill him and save everyone. Probably dying in the process but that was part of the deal, the brave heroine sacrificing herself to protect her friends.”

“The martyr role doesn’t really suit you,” Terezi said with a smile. “That’s more Karkat’s area of expertise.”

That made Vriska laugh because she really could see the fool throwing himself in front of Jack in a futile intent to protect everyone. Luckily for him, there had always been a full hemospectrum range of trolls ready to pull him out of the fire. Even the humans seemed charmed with him and they had just met Karkat in person a few hours ago. The crabnub was just too fucking adorable for his own good.

“He would not have the opportunity, didn’t you hear Sollux before?” she laughed. “He literally said he would save him from Jack and then push him away from the new universe. Talk about mixed signals.”

Terezi cracked laughter bloomed up at her comment. It was nice to hear her laugh now, after their previous awkward moment.

“They are so fucking embarrassing!” Terezi laughed. “And did you notice Dave black-flirting with Karkat, too? He probably didn’t even know what he was doing!”

“Why is that bossy big-mouthed nub-horned stupid excuse of a troll having so many potential kismesis all of a sudden?!” she complained with a growl. “I swear that him and Sollux barely interacted during our game!”

“He was probably too busy playing leadership, and Sollux had his thing with Eridan and Feferi,” Terezi added, always loving her gossip. “I doubt it got anywhere though, not enough time for it.”

“Eridan is the worst candidate for a kismesissitude, I’m telling you,” Vriska replied with revulsion. “Too insecure and fluctuating.”

“Yeah, I don’t think Sollux considered him for any quadrant, and especially not for the black one,” her hatefriend smiled. “It’s clear to me who is inhabiting that part of his blood pusher.”

“Fuck Terezi, that’s gross! Don’t talk to me about the mustard-blood’s feelings!” Vriska complained while doing fake throwing up gestures. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter because KrabKat will never settle enough in a quadrant to have a proper quadrantmate.”

“Well, he almost has a quadrant filled already, so I don’t think its so hard to believe,” Terezi commented while thinking it over. “And for how he was hiding behind Kanaya and the way she was smiling at him, all pale-like, I don’t think it will take long for them to make it official.”

Wait, what? No! Kanaya and Karkat were not moirails! They couldn’t because Kanaya was HER moirail!

It was true that they had not been talking a lot lately, but Vriska had been busy training Tavros and being awesome at the game. They didn’t have any fight or argument or anything like that! Well, Kanaya had somehow died and revived as a rainbow drinker without Vriska knowing it, but the jade-blooded girl had killed Eridan to save her!

It had been to save her, right?

Not that she needed it, of course, but that was what moirails did for each other, right? She really didn’t know, actually. It had always been Kanaya the one meddling and pushing her until she talked about her worries and fears.

Had the other troll ever talked to her about her own problems?

She couldn’t remember any occasion, but it must had happened at some point!

“Vriska? Are you fine?” she heard Terezi saying, which brought her back from her thoughts.

“They are not pale, they can’t,” decided her. “She is MY moirail, not HIS!”

Oh, she was going to kill Karkat. Slowly. How did he dare try stealing something from HER?

She took out her palmhusk and saw that Kanaya was connected. She hurried to send her a message.

arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling grimAuxiliatrix [GA] at 88:39  


AG: where are you now????????

GA: Good Night For You Too

GA: Not That Is Your Business But I am Currently Getting Some Nourishment

AG: al8ne????????

GA: I Am In The Presence Of The Humans And Our Leader

AG: Karkat is with y8u????????!!!!!!!!

AG: why is he with you, why is he always with y8u????????!!!!!!!!

AG: and don’t call him leader, that dum8ass is not the leader of 8nything!!!!!!!!

GA: How I Choose To Call Or Not To Call My Friend Is My Business And My Privilege

GA: What Is The Cause Of This Interrogation

AG: nothing, just worried a8out MY moirail!!!!!!!!

GA: …

GA: I See

GA: I Understand The Situation Now

GA: I Though I Had Been Clear About This Topic But It Seems That I Had Misjudged Your Intelligence

AG: what are you talking a8out????????

GA: I Believe This Confrontation Should Be Done In Person

GA: I Am In Karkat Section Now But We Could Meet In A Few Minutes If You Wish So

AG: how are you in his section?! he never lets anyone there! why are y8u there?!!!!!!!!

AG: is it true then?

AG: are you cheating 8n ME, Maryam?!!!!!!!

AG: >::::[

GA: Vriska We Are Not Moirails Anymore

GA: We Havent Been In A Perigee

That… that was a lie. A perigee?

It couldn’t be, that would mean since they began playing the game. All that time?

Kanaya had not said anything about it, Vriska was sure. Now that she thought about that, she didn’t even remember when had been their last conversation or what it had been about. She scrolled back in their trollian’s chat, ignoring the warnings of new messages being added at the bottom. Last time they talked it had indeed been almost a perigee ago, when Vriska pestered her about her costume-made dress.

Wait, no, Kanaya had actually sent her a couple of messages a few nights after that, but she never saw them. Until now.

GA: This Is Not Working I Am Tired Of Being The Only One Making An Effort In This Relationship

GA: You Are Not Even Reading My Messages Anymore Am I Right

GA: I Hate You

Vriska felt a freezing chill going down her spine pole. She checked again the date when she received those messages; it was a couple of days after they began playing the game. She didn’t even remember hearing the sound alert of her palmhusk warning her of her new message, but she had definitively used it several times after that.

Now that she was thinking about it, she remembered seeing the alert once when she went into Trollian to talk with Terezi, but she did not give any importance to it at that time. Just Maryam being meddlesome again, how annoying. She had postponed checking their conversation and eventually forgot about it.

That had been a perigee ago, though, just when Kanaya had stopped trolling her and Vriska had not even noticed. Her moirail broke up with her and she didn’t even care enough to make her the honour to read her parting message.

“Vris?” she heard someone calling her.

She turned to the source of the voice and found Terezi looking at her with a worried expression. She had forgotten she was even there. Good job Vriska, keep ignoring everybody, see how it works out for you.

“Kanaya…” she began but her voice failed. “Kanaya broke up with me.”

Terezi's worried expression turned into an angry one, and a low snarl could be heard in Terezi’s voice.

“Wait, I thought you had broken it weeks ago!" was her first reaction. "She was acting so pale with Karkat yesterday but she hadn't broken your diamond until right now?!” she growled. “And she did it through Trollian?!”

“No, you don’t understand,” Vriska tried to explain, hurt and ashamed to admit that she had done that to herself.

“I understand perfectly,” was Terezi's angry answer. “The coward didn’t have the abdominal sausages to at least tell you in person. I will kill her!”

“No!” Vriska yelled, grabbing Terezi’s frond and stopping her from getting up and leaving the block. “It was my fault.”

“Oh, Vris, don’t say that,” refused the other girl with a gentle voice. “I’m sure that’s not true.”

“It is! It is my fault!” she insisted before taking a drastic decision. “Here, read it yourself!”

Terezi took her palmhusk, confusion on her face while she read the messages, but she sat back on her pile a moments later with a sad expression in her face.

“Vris…”

“She sent me that a perigee ago and I never even read it!” Vriska yelled, ashamed and regretful. “She stopped trolling me after that and I barely noticed! Which kind of moirail am I?!”

Vriska hugged her knees to her torso and hid her face between them. She was not really sad about it. Instead, she was feeling a bit guilty and ashamed of herself. She had taken Kanaya for granted and had been a very bad moirail for her. It had always been about Vriska’s problems and Vriska’s mistakes, never about miss fussy-fangs’ feelings or doubts.

Even someone as stupid as Equius had an annoying but healthy moirallegiance with Nepeta! She was a failure of a troll. It had been a one-sided relationship from the beginning, so, why was she hurt now that Kanaya had done the mature thing and broken up with her?

“You should read the last messages she has just sent you while you were moping,” she heard Terezi say then, pushing her palmhusk back into her hands.

“I don’t want to,” she protested weakly.

“Do it,” her hatefriend insisted. “You will feel better afterwards, trust me.”

Vriska didn’t want to read any more messages and she didn’t want to trust Terezi either, but refusing to check her messages had brought her here in the first place. The key to be the best was to learn from one’s mistakes, right? And she wanted to be the best. She forced herself to read.

GA: I Assumed You Had Reached The Same Deduction And Agreed That We Are Not Meant To Be

GA: My Phrasing Last Time Might Have Been A Bit Overemotional But In My Defence I Was Going Through A Wicked State Myself

GA: I Realise Now That I Should Have Made The Effort To Confront You In Person Instead Of Assuming You Had Understood The Message

GA: I Apologize For That

GA: However You Did Not Show Any Intent To Reply Or Contact Me Afterwards

GA: You Did Not Even Say A Word To Me When We Met Before The Final Battle

GA: Even If There Were Other More Imperative Circumstances To Worry About At The Moment I Anticipated Some Confrontation So I Presumed You Did Not Want To Talk About It And Preferred To Pretend We Had Never Been Quadrantmates In The First Place

GA: I Should Have Been More Upfront About The Situation

GA: I Am Truly Sorry About That Vriska

GA: …

GA: I See That You Do Not Want To Keep Dialoguing With Me Anymore

GA: I Comprehend That And I Promise That I Will Respect That Decision

GA: However First I Would Like To Express My Regret For Being Such A Bad Palemate For You

GA: The Truth Is That My Feelings Were More Inclined Towards The Red Quadrant Than The Pale One

GA: In Retrospect Now I See That I Was Indeed Too Inconvenient And Meddlesome For You

GA: And I Could Not Be Open About My Feelings With You Because I Was Mortified By Them

GA: So Again I Am Regretful For Not Clearing This Situation Previously

GA: I Will Let You Be Now

AG: w8 Kanaya!!!!!!!!

GA: …

GA: You Truly Read All Of It I Did Not Thought You Would

GA: I Am Regretting Every Embarrassing Word Now

AG: it was not your f8ult!!!!!!!!

AG: well, the red quadrant vacillation thing may have 8een your fault

AG: I didn't have any idea you felt that way

AG: 8ut the rest is all on me. I was an horrible moirail

GA: …

AG: I notice that you didn't 8other refusing that, Maryam

GA: You Were Saying

AG: yeah, right

AG: I actually just read the last messages you sent me a perigee ago

AG: thats why I was not answering just now

GA: …

GA: I Guess I Should Be Surprised But I Already Had An Inkling That It Might Be The Case

AG: so yeah, my moirail 8roke up with me and I didn’t even notice 8ecause I was so fucking 8usy thinking only a8out m8self!!!!!!!!

AG: so, if one of us has to carry the title to the worst palemate, it's me

GA: Maybe In Its Place We Should Just Agree That It Was Simply Not Meant To Be And Leave It At That

AG: what? NO! it was my fault, I should 8e punished for it!!!!!!!!

GA: As Delightful As That Suggestion Is A Moirallegiance Is A Dance Between Two Trolls

GA: It Is Supposed To Be A Partnership Where Both Parts Get Emotional Support And Fulfilment

GA: I Was Not Satisfied With What I Was Getting But I Did Not Say Anything In A Futile Hope Of Eventually Fluctuating Together To The Red Quadrant

AG: see? I was a 8ad moirail for you, so it's my fault

GA: I Appreciate You Owning Your Part In This Messed Up Relationship

GA: I Never Anticipated You Would Do It But Lets Not

GA: I Do Not Blame You It Was Both Our Fault

GA: We Just Do Not Work Well Together Lets Accept It And Move On

AG: okay, 8ut can we still 8e friends?

AG: I will probably need some time 8ut lets not make this an even more awkward situation that it has to be

GA: I Agree

AG: I might 8lock you for a 8it 8ut I promise to un8lock you again when I'm ready

GA: That Is Reasonable

GA: Should We Made It Official Then

AG: yes, we should. you are right, it's for the 8est

GA: Okay Then

GA: <|>

AG: <|>

GA: Good Luck Vriska I Hope You Find A Suitable Palemate

AG: yeah, I hope you are happy with Karkat

GA: Wait What Do You Mean

arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling grimAuxiliatrix [GA] at 88:61

arachnidsGrip [AG] blocked grimAuxiliatrix [GA] at 88:61

Vriska captchalogued her palmhusk and dropped her thinkpan on her knees again. It was over then.

Should she feel different than before?

She did not feel sad or disappointed. If she had to put a name to her feelings it would be shame and the sensation that she had failed a test. Not even a life-treatening test either, just a regular one.

It was not like she needed a moirail anyway, she could be a bit aggressive sometimes but it was normal for a troll, right?

And having a moirail had not stopped her from paralysing Tavros, killing Aradia and blinding Terezi. Without their planet and the Condesce's expectations, she didn’t need to submit to the moirallegiance system anymore.

“Do you think that now that there are almost no trolls around we still need to fulfil all our quadrants?” she asked aloud.

She heard Terezi stop typing on her palmhusk next to her, which she had been doing during her private conversation with Kanaya, and move closer on the pile to confront Vriska properly.

“I’m not the best troll to answer that question,” was her reply. “If you want to talk about quadrants you should go to Karkat.”

That was a terrible idea. She might not be sad about her broken diamond, but she knew better than anyone how vengefully she could be. And she didn’t like other people stealing her things.

“I asked you,” Vriska growled.

“Ok, let me think,” Terezi answered with a calm voice. “Moirallegiance never was the most government-approved quadrant, right? I mean, none of the conciliatory ones meant anything to Condy, she only cared about black and red.”

“I guess so,” Vriska nodded. “There was a lot of insistence on filling pails for the Mother Grub.”

“Exactly,” her friend affirmed. “So, having a moirail or an auspice were not strictly required but most trolls had had one of them anyway at some point in their lifes.”

That was right, even Tavros had been moirails for a bit with a troll girl she met on a FLARP campaign. However, she had disappeared mysteriously one night, and no one had seen her again. Vriska had not felt an ounce of regret for that particular lusus’s food.

“Yeah, especially highbloods,” she confirmed.

“Well, and the lowbloods who were their moirails,” Terezi laughed. “With the exception of Feferi and Eridan, the rest of highbloods in our group were moirails with someone lower than them in the hemospectrum.”

“Gamzee did not have a moirail,” Vriska argued.

“We both know that Karkat and him were moirails in all but the name,” her hatefriend corrected her. “If he had not gone murder-crazy, I wonder if they would have end making it official.”

Maybe it had happened anyway in the previous timeline, if someone would be able to calm down a mad-crazy Gamzee it was Karkat. The grumpy nubs had something that made everyone a bit pale for him, it had been clear in his stupid memos. In the end, those had been the place to go if you needed to vent about your relationship problems, or if you were just that desperate for someone to listen to you.

The fact that Karkat also acted like a lusus with everyone didn’t help his self-imposed image of a rough, bloody leader. He was just too pitiable for that.

“So, you think that having a moirail is something actually beneficial for trolls, especially highbloods,” Vriska concluded.

“No offence, but all of your kind are too hot-headed and violent,” Terezi insisted. “However, it might be good for you, but it doesn’t mean that you need one, in my opinion. All of us are capable of self-restraining ourselves with a bit of practice.”

“I guess I will have to learn, then,” Vriska shrugged.

“Vris…” her friend muttered with clear pity in her voice.

“I think I’m tired now, I should try to sleep,” she said, getting up and beginning captchaloguing everything back into her sylladex.

“Okay,” Terezi acceded, getting up and collecting her things. “I will leave you be then. I’m taking the chalks with me, though. If you want to keep working in our Wall of War, troll me.”

Vriska nodded and followed her friend to the entrance, blocking it after she left. Then, she went to her respiteblock, blocking each transportalizer and secret door in her way. Gamzee was still in her section after all. She would have to do something about him, eventually, but for the moment he could stay put where he was. She jumped back to her pile and forced her eyes closed until she finally fell asleep

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **ALTERNIAN DICTIONARY** : most words are obtained from the troll terminology list in MS Paint Adventures Wiki with some new ones and additional context specifications. Trolls higher in the hemospectrum use some words similar to the humans (eyes, can, fridge…)
> 
>   * _Grubhood:_ childhood
>   * _Prong:_ hand
>   * _Strut pod:_ foot
>   * _TaB:_ a sugar-free zero calorie diet cola originally from Alternia
>   * _Digestion bladder:_ stomach
>   * _Grubmeat:_ an insectoid meat typical from Alternia
>   * _Abdominal sausages_ : guts (some alternian words are so funny)
> 



	4. Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story just got a beta and it's already so much better! All the credit to TopHatBigPencil for helping me!! :)
> 
> As always, all comments, kudos or bookmarks are loved!

Rose awoke to the sound of several consecutive Pesterchum notifications, followed from something falling to the floor in the next room. It took her a few moments to remember where she was. Right, the meteor. She tried to sit up, but one of the pillows under her slipped with her movement and she almost ended falling off the pile. Rose sighed and tried to sit up again, this time maintaining her balance and managing to stay on top. After decaptchaloguing her hubtop from her sylladex, she opened Pesterchum and found notifications from Dave and an invitation to a group memo.

Rose checked the hour in her computer and saw that it indicated 39:87, which of course was ridiculous but not surprising. Any device that could track time had been acting weird since they left the Green Sun and went deeper into paradox space. It was not clear yet if this phenomenon was a consequence of time being inconsistent here, or if her laptop had been damaged somehow when she died in the explosion that created the Green Sun. It had actually been quite a surprise to still have her sylladex with almost all her things after dying twice. She had lost some of her possessions though, like her useful hubtopband, but she had a strong suspicion that John took it from her dead body. Anyway, she probably should consider using some method to keep track of the passage of time, even if it had to be manually.

She checked her Pesterchum again and accepted the invitation to the group chat.

arachnidsGrip [AG] opened time-locked bulletin board _'8 is the key'_ at 39:83

grimAuxiliatrix [GA]  has been added to the bulletin board 

tentacleTherapist [TT] has been added to the bulletin board

gallowsCalibrator [GC] has been added to the bulletin board

turntechGodhead [TG] has been added to the bulletin board

twinArmageddons [TA] has been added to the bulletin board

carcinoGeneticist [CG] has been added to the bulletin board

AG: Hey loooooooosers!!!!!!!!

AG: Time to get up and 8ring your little pathetic posteriors to the War 8lock for our first meeting!!!!!!!!

AG: 8ring food and all your principal resources for scrutinizing

AG: we have a lot to de8ate

CG: WHAT THE FUCK VRISKA?! I WENT TO SLEEP JUST AN HOUR AGO! WHAT THE FUCK DOES A TROLL HAVE TO DO IN THIS GODFORSAKEN STUPID ROCK TO GET HIS DESERVED SIX HOURS OF UNDISTURBED REST?!!

CG: WASN’T IT ENOUGH THAT I SACRIFICED 600 HOURS OF MY LIFE STAYING AWAKE  DURING THE GAME  TO MAKE SURE THAT ALL OF YOU FUCKERS HAD A PROPER LEADER READY AT ANY TIME YOUR STUPID SPONGES AND UNGRATEFUL BLOOD PUSHERS NEEDED SOME MINIMAL GUIDANCE?!!

TG: wtf dude???

TG: i went to sleep at least ten hours ago

TG: u know at a respectable time for respectable gentlmen

TG: after i put the kids in bed and kissed my wife goodnight

TG: took the dog out for a last minute toilet emergency

TG: like of course u needed to go right now toby in the middle of the night when i was already wearing my gentlman pyjamas

CG: I'M NOT EVEN GOING TO TRY TO UNDERSTAND THAT SMELLY, NASTY PILE OF GARBAGE THAT YOU JUST TYPED OUT, STRIDER

TG: no really its all human standard procedure dont trolls do it??

CG: I’M GOING TO DO THE FUCKING MATURE THING HERE AND PUT YOUR CULTURALLY INSENSITIVE AND MENTALLY DEFICIENT PREVIOUS CONTRIBUTION TO THE DISCARD PILE AND KEEP ASKING ALL THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS HERE

GA: If I Might Contribute For A Moment It Would Be Advantageous To Have A Further Explanation Of The Main Objective Of This Mentioned Meeting And Of The Localisation Of This Aforementioned War Block

CG: YES, ALL SENSIBLE AND IMPORTANT QUESTIONS. THANKS, KANAYA, FOR YOUR REASONABLE CONTRIBUTION TO THIS OTHERWISE SENSELESS MEMO IN A LANGUAGE THAT EVERYONE CAN UNDERSTAND AND AVOIDING THE USE OF CONCEPTS THAT COULD ONLY BE UNDERSTOOD BY THOSE WITH THE DISGRACE TO HAVE A STUPID AND PRIMITIVE CULTURE

TA: chiill out, KK, for fuck2 2ake

CG: DON’T YOU START WITH ME, CAPTOR!!! WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN THESE LAST TWO NIGHTS?! YOU COMPLETELY DISAPPEARED AFTER YOUR FUCKING DRAMATIC DEPARTURE FROM TEREZI’S BLOCK!!!

TA: ii wa2 bu2y

CG: BUSY MY BULGE!! WHAT COULD ANYONE FIND IN THIS DEAD ROCK TO BE REMOTELY DISTRACTED FOR MORE THAN TWO SECONDS?

TG: wooo dude, keep ur fetishes for urself

TG: seriously tmi

TG: also sorry for u man if thats all the time it takes

TT: As interesting as this debate is, and against the temptation to let this train derail to its metaphoric annihilation, I also think that a group meeting could be a good idea at this point

TA: what iis a traiin

TT: Everyone has had a couple of days to rest from their physical injuries and, while I am afraid that emotional and mental consequences will need more time to mend, there are more urgent matters

TT: There are several topics that we should consider, like proper accommodations, resources, and some basic rules if we are going to survive three years together in this meteor

AG: that’s exactly my point here, Lalonde

AG: while all of you losers have 8een slacking off and wasting your time these past days, I have 8een working on a detailed plan that will make our journey easier

AG: we need to know what exactly our current resources are and what we will need to sustain ourselves before we reach the next session

AG: so, quit complaining and c8me already!!!!!!!!

GC: 1 4M GU3S1NG TH4T BY W4R BLOCK YOU M34N TH3 ROOM 1N YOUR S3CTOR W1TH THE N1C3 B1G W4LL

CG: THANK YOU TEREZI FOR YOUR INCREDIBLY USEFUL EXPLANATION!! EVERYTHING IS CLEAR NOW EVERYONE!!! WE HAVE TO MEET IN THE BLOCK WITH THE NICE WALL!! THERE IS NO DOUBT NOW TO WHERE YOU MEAN, ITS NOT LIKE THERE ARE AT LEAST FOUR FUCKING WALLS IN EVERY BLOCK IN THIS METEOR!!!

TA: eheheheh

CG: LETS EVERYONE GO TO THE BLOCK WITH THE WALL! HOW ARE YOU GOING TO DO THAT YOU SAY? ALL THE BLOCKS HAVE WALLS YOU SAY? ITS NOT MY FUCKING PROBLEM IF NONE OF YOU HAVE THE SPONGE CAPACITY TO FIND THE ONLY BLOCK IN THIS METEOR WITH, AND I QUOTE, A NICE WALL!!!

TG: seriously dude, chill out

AG: listen to the human, Kra8kat, don’t make me 8lock you so soon in the conversation

CG: DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE BAN ME OUT VRISKA!

CG banned CG from responding to bulletin board

AG: look at that

AG: Krapkat decided to 8lock himself, how generous

CG unbanned CG from responding to bulletin board

CG: HAVE YOU FINALLY LOST YOUR MIND SPIDERTROLL?! CONTROLLING ME TO BAN MYSELF OUT WONT WORK BECAUSE I CAN JUST UNBAN MYSELF THE SECOND YOU LET ME GO, YOU FUCKING RETARDED EXCUSE OF A TROLL!!!

GC banned CG from responding to bulletin board.

GC: SORRY K4RK4T BUT 1 C3RT41NL1 DON’T W4NT TO SP3ND 4LL D4Y 1N TH1S CONV3RS4T1ON

GC: 1 W1LL UNBLOCK YOU L4T3R

GC: TH3 W4R BLOCK 1S TH3 F1RST ON3 1N VR1SK4 S3CT1ON

GC: 1 B3L13V3 TH4T 3V3RYON3 KNOWS OR 1S CURR3NTLY W1TH SOM3ON3 TH4T KNOWS HOW TO G3T TH3R3

GC: L3TS 4LL M33T TH3R3 1N T3N M1NUT3S 4PROX1M4T3LY

AG: thanks, Terezi for your thorough explanation

AG: don’t forget to 8ring a list of your resources and food to eat, losers.

AG: it will 8e a long meeting

AG: now, get lost!

AG banned GC from responding to bulletin board

AG banned TT from responding to bulletin board

AG banned TG from responding to bulletin board

AG banned TA from responding to bulletin board

AG banned GA from responding to bulletin board 

Well, there went Rose’s plans for the day. Not that she had anything planned anyway. At least this way everyone would be distracted, the last 48 hours had not been exactly easy for anyone. On her first morning in the meteor Rose was awoken early by Kanaya, who informed her that she needed to go out to look for Karkat. Apparently, the troll had not been answering her messages for a while and she needed Rose to block the transportalizer from the inside once she was gone. Instead of doing that, they ended up waking Dave and going together to look for the troll. 

He was not in his private section and, after a quick search, they finally found him in a room full of computers, cleaning suspicious colourful stains in the floor. From the various colours dyeing Karkat’s pants, he had been on the floor scrubbing what were clearly blood stains for hours. Dave took a look around at what was without any doubt the result of a bloody battle, and run away without a word. Kanaya also needed to go away from the potent smell of blood almost immediately, but Rose decided to stay and help Karkat. They worked in respectful silence for the two hours that it took them to clean that room. After that, they spend an additional hour wiping the yellow stains in the stairs within Karkat’s sector, while the troll explained in a low voice how he had dragged Sollux’s unconscious body to the ectobiology lab, afraid of Eridan or Gamzee deciding to finish the job. He summarized in a few words what had happened with Eridan in the room they had just cleaned up, and how he didn’t know where Gamzee had killed Nepeta and Equius. He told her all that as a warning, in the case that she found other blood stains that needed to be scrubbed out, somewhere in the meteor. Rose had nodded without a word and tried to contain the sudden spike of fear that prospect brought her.

After that, Karkat invited her to stay in the lab to eat together, and they ended texting Kanaya and Dave to come over too. The trolls offered them several curious foods that were mostly made of bugs, or had bugs and larvae in it. Rose had decided to stay with her variety of cookies and other mundane human snacks, but Dave tried some of the troll versions, declaring them weird but not as bad as he had expected. He didn’t get sick afterwards but he looked suspiciously green for a bit, so Rose decided to bring him back to the room he had been using in Kanaya’s section. Kanaya stayed with Karkat in his section for a bit longer, clearly worried about him, and Rose decided to go exploring the meteor once she had left Dave in his room.

She walked into dark corridors and abandoned laboratories full of monstrosities in tubes for a while, until she found Terezi in a hallway with several troll’s decapitated bodies floating in strange yellow liquid in big glass tubes. She was in front of the body of a troll with brown blood and mechanical legs, looking at it with an immutable serious expression. Rose decided to leave her alone with it, horrified with the visual image of those dead bodies exposed like trophies. In the end she went back to Kanaya’s section and she had not left it yet. The day before she had spent some time with Dave in his self-proclaimed room, a bit more with Kanaya, and the rest of the time alone in her room, trying to process everything that had happened to her in such a short time. Neither she nor Dave mentioned a word about the dead trolls, but Rose was sure that he was also wondering what the hell had gone down in that meteor. Karkat had explained a bit but Rose had the suspicion that it had not been even half of it.

Her stomach growled with hunger. She decaptchalogued a pack of cookies and took a look at her meagre supplies. She was almost out of food and she still had not found an alchemiter or anything resembling a kitchen anywhere in the meteor. However, she had not done much exploring after the incident with Terezi and the Hall of Horrors, and she had forgotten to ask Kanaya about it. Hopefully, there will be one somewhere. If not, they would really have a serious problem if they could not find food soon. She didn’t want to check if dying of starvation was considered a Heroic or Just death. Kanaya had offered some of her food again the previous day, but it turned out that most of the troll’s nutrition was based on bugs or larvae and, after Dave’s reaction, she was not in a hurry to try it. She did not even know if human metabolism was able to digest bug’s meat, and the last thing they needed was to fall ill. Even more reasons to have this meeting, there was a lot she had to ask the trolls about, beginning with the presence of an alchemiter in the meteor.

Rose allowed her body to slide down the pile of pillows and clothes to the floor. There, she inspected her God Tier clothes for stains or wrinkles, but they were impeccable. Fortuitously for her because those were simultaneously her only clothes and her only source of light in the dark meteor. She had all her possessions already in her sylladex, so she went directly outside her room and knocked on the next door.

“Dave?” she called. “Are you ready? We really should go to this meeting.”

“Yeah, yeah, just a sec!” was his response from inside.

With nothing else to do, Rose opened Pesterchum again, thinking of sending a quick message to Kanaya, and saw again the notification from Dave’s message. She had completely forgotten about it before. She sent a quick petition to Kanaya to meet them in the room with all the transportalizers and opened Dave’s message.

turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering tentacleTherapist [TT] at 39:88

TG: did i tell u that i hate piles??

TG: i hate piles

TG: oh fuck i just realised the messed up time

TG: 39:88 seriously thats so dope

TG: is ur computer as crzy as mine??

TG: rose??

TG: oh karkat is being stupid again brb

turntechGodhead [TG] ceased pestering tentacleTherapist [TT] at 40:01

Rose blinked with confusion at that short monologue. Did Dave send her a message only to complain about piles? And the fact that he had rushed to the group chat only to verbally antagonize Karkat was also interesting. Then she remembered the sound she heard before, like something falling to the floor. The door behind her opened and Dave was suddenly there, leaning in the door frame with his Strider-patented coolness.

“Sup,” her ectobiologic brother saluted her when she turned towards him.

“Dave, did you fall out of your pile this morning?” she smiled sweetly at him.

His blush and the uninterrupted flow of stuttered, weird, and sometimes awkwardly suggestive words stayed with them all the way to the War Block.

* * *

“When I told you to bring your resources I was not talking about your stupid bees, Sollux!”

“Hey, don’t mess with my bees, psychotroll!”

“Stop calling me that!”

“I will do it when you stop being a psychopath!”

Rose was observing the interaction between Vriska and Sollux with great interest. They had been at each other throats since the first moment they had seen each other. Rose looked around, trying to see if this was a normal behaviour for them, and she was quite surprised when she saw Kanaya and Karkat exchanging worried looks. That was not what she expected at all. A few days ago, when it had been Karkat and Sollux arguing in a similar way, all the other trolls had looked elated or disgusted at the display but not worried. She looked again and tried to see the difference. Maybe their expressions and body posture were more aggressive than how it had been between Karkat and Sollux, but she could not really perceive any clear difference. Could it be something that only the trolls were able to detect? Some kind of signal that was out of human’s perception or something related to their culture? So fascinating. She kept observing while Kanaya finally decided to intervene and, with a few words, managed to calm down both trolls, who turned and went in opposite directions.

“Ok!” Vriska said. “As I was saying before our local loser decided to be prissy about his stupid pets…”

“Watch it,” Rose heard Sollux warn in a low voice.

There was a loud sound and when she turned to the source of it, she saw the four-horned troll sending a venomous look at Karkat, who was sitting next to him. From the sound she had heard, she deduced that the short troll had slapped his friend. In vengeance, Sollux kicked the other troll’s leg and it wasn’t long before they were exchanging slaps and kicks like little kids.

“Oi!” Vriska yelled. “If you don’t stop that, I will mind-control both of you until we are done!”

The threat sounded half-hearted and Rose doubted Vriska would really do it, or that she really could do something like that. However, Sollux’s body tensed up when hearing her and, for a moment, he looked clearly terrorised about that prospect. Next to him, Karkat let go a low growl and yelled to Vriska in response to the threat.

“DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE, VRISKA!!!”

Vriska seemed as surprised as everyone else by his exaggerated reaction, but she clearly didn’t like to be told what to do. She was about to say something in retribution when Terezi got up from the floor and went to her side.

“Nobody is going to control or seriously hurt anyone here,” she said with a serious look directed first to Vriska and then to Karkat. “That's actually the first rule we are suggesting.”

“Rules? Seriously? Why do we need rules?” Dave complained with one of his more childish pouts. “I hate rules.”

Rose noticed that his attitude had managed to reduce the tension in the room substantially. Vriska now looked more exasperated than angry, and Karkat had stopped making that threatening sound. Sollux, however, suddenly seemed smaller and a lot quieter than before. Observing him discreetly, Rose noticed that one of his hands was clutching Karkat’s sweater’s arm. Oh. He was seeking support in his friend in a subtle way, probably unconsciously, and Karkat was allowing it without making a huge scene. Rose frowned and looked at Vriska again. Something had happened between those three in the past, but she had no idea what it could be.

“I knew you had a criminal mind, Dave,” Terezi smiled with her huge, creepy smile. “All societies need basic rules to be able to cohabitate, especially in restricted places like here.”

“I agree that some rules could be beneficial for everyone’s sake, but I don’t like the idea of having my freedom limited,” Kanaya argued.

“Your objection is noted, my friend,” Terezi nodded. “We suggest some basic rules here and all of us will vote and agree to them.”

“What will happen if someone breaks a rule?” Rose asked then, suspicious. “What consequences could be expected of that act?”

“That’s a very good question, miss Lalonde,” the blind troll answered. “As the only one properly trained as a legislacerator, I will be the one deciding the punishment for the offenders.”

Rose needed a moment to process that word. Legislacerator. She had no idea what it was, probably some kind of law-enforcement position in troll’s culture.

“You know that that’s not how lawyers work in our world, Terezi,” Dave argued while rolling his eyes. “You can’t be an investigator, a lawyer, and a judge at the same time.”

So Dave actually knew what that term meant. Taking into consideration that Dave had talked a lot with Terezi during the game, it was not actually surprising. It was clear that it was an important topic for the troll.

“Maybe it was like that in your world full of weaklings, but there are more trolls than humans present here,” Karkat argued. “Also, your culture is primitive and stupid, ours is better.”

“At least we are not expected to kill each other on a regular basis,” the human counter argued. “That counts as a lot better in my opinion, maybe we are the superior race after all.”

Clearly seeing that the topic was at an hair's breadth to transform into a political debate, Rose decided to intervene.

“Maybe before we argue about whose culture is the superior one, we should hear those suggested rules,” she said with a recriminatory tone of voice before turning back to their other Seer. “Please, Terezi, continue.”

“Sure, we can have the debate at another time, Dave,” the troll said before she turned back to Vriska. “Do you want to do the honours?”

The other troll seemed to grow a bit when given back the lead. She turned to point to a column labelled _‘rules’_ , under the _‘Surviving Game’_ section.

“Okay, losers, as I was saying before this meeting was reduced to inconsequential stupid debates,” she began, apparently unable to talk without insulting somebody in the process. “Our first rule is that we’re not allowed to seriously hurt or kill another member of this team.”

“Wait, what is considered seriously hurt for you?” Rose asked. “The simple fact that you found the need to make a rule against killing it’s already quite alarming.”

“Of course it had to be a rule, we don’t want another murder spree,” Vriska replied.

“Yeah, I completely agree on that, we can’t afford to lose anyone before the next session,” Rose nodded. “I just meant that, for us humans, killing is already socially unacceptable in normal conditions.”

Not like anyone made a rule book about the behaviour expected when trapped with aliens in an interdimensional game that was at the same time the cause of the destruction and the possible creation of a full universe. Maybe Rose should write it herself sometime, she would have lots of time to spare in her near future.

“I disagree,” Kanaya protested. “There is a certain troll in this meteor that represents a serious threat to everyone, therefore he has to perish.”

Everyone looked at Kanaya for a few moments in silence. She had not moved from her pillow on the floor, and her body remained calm and in an elegant posture. It was an intriguing contrast with what she was saying. Rose had not forgotten that Kanaya’s weapon was a chainsaw and that she fed on blood, but her murderous words still surprised her.

“You are talking about Gamzee,” Karkat said in a resigned voice. “I know he has done horrible things that have no justification or forgiveness, but does he really need to die? Where is he, by the way? I haven’t seen or heard him since the dream bubble.”

“He is restricted for now in one of my secret rooms,” Vriska answered, for once without any insult. “It’s connected to this one, actually, but he can’t get out from inside. And even if he could, he will need to move THAT away.”

She pointed to a huge machine full of tubes and empty glass containers that was resting against the wall near the stairs. It certainly looked heavy enough to block someone’s way, but Rose did not really have a measure of the trolls’ strength. Yet.

“He is in THIS room??!!” Karkat yelled while he jumped out and a sickle appeared in his hand. “Are you fucking crazy?! Do you want us dead??!!”

“For fuck’s sake, KK, sit down and stop being so jumpy,” Sollux complained next to him, grabbing the other troll by his sweater. “He’s locked up and even if he breaks out, he can’t do anything against all of us.”

“You are one to talk!” Karkat replied, slapping the other’s hand away from his clothes. “What will you do? Use one of your throwing-stars? With your prongs?! You won’t even reach him with your laughable weak strength.”

That seemed to hit a nerve because, with just a quick movement, Sollux supported all his body’s weight with his hand on the floor and swept his long legs against Karkat’s, making him fall back to the floor with a squeal. In the next second, he was sitting on Karkat’s chest, holding the other troll’s arms away with his hands. He was wearing a triumphant smile, clearly proud of himself.

“Who is the weak one, here?” he asked.

Rose noticed, amused, how Karkat’s dark cheekbones turned even darker with a subtle tint of red. She heard someone cough loudly, and then it was Sollux’s face turn to get a yellow tint. Rose was beginning to understand the difference between their relationship and the one between Sollux and Vriska. It was clear than Vriska and Sollux hated each other in the way the humans did; with resentment, murderous intent and hurt feelings due to some circumstances in their past that Rose was not privy to. However, there was not such hatred between Karkat and Sollux. They were not lovey-dovey with each other, either. In fact, they were bickering and fighting at any small opportunity, but there was clearly a massive amount of trust and respect between them. They looked more like rivals that pushed and poked at the other constantly, but that in the bottom of their hearts admired and loved the other. Could that be what the troll’s dark romance was really about?

“Fuck off, Captor!” Karkat growled, sitting up and moving Sollux with the movement in a show of pure strength.

Sollux fell backwards in an awkward position, holding an odd expression while he watched Karkat get up and walk away from him, as if the other troll had weighted nothing. If Rose were pressed to put a name to that expression, she would say that Sollux looked astonished, surprised, and maybe a bit aroused by Karkat’s strength. That was just a supposition from her part, of course, she did not know any of them well enough to make an accurate interpretation. However, taking into consideration that, as far as she knew, Sollux was usually a quite powerful psychic, having his rival overmatching him with such ease was probably shocking for him. Rose couldn’t repress her smile. Those two were quite an interesting couple.

“Can you leave your awkward black-flirting for your own private blocks?” Vriska asked, rhetorically.

“We are not… !” Sollux complained.

“Get into your fucking business, Vriska!!” was Karkat’s reaction.

Rose observed the subsequent brawl, amused, and looked around to see everyone’s reaction. Terezi was still standing next to Vriska with a look of clear exasperation, while her friend mocked both Karkat and Sollux. The shorter troll was arguing back with her, but Sollux was ignoring both of them from where he was sitting on the floor. He seemed lost in his head and still had a clear yellow tint in his cheekbones. It was not hard for Rose to presume what the troll was thinking about. Next to her, Dave was murmuring to himself something that sounded like _‘so homo’_ and a worrisome _‘Bro would have killed them’_. It was clear that the whole situation bothered her ecto-brother more than it should, she would need to talk with him sometime about it. Finally, still sitting on her pillow, Kanaya was smiling softly at Karkat in a maternal way. After a minute, however, Rose saw her exchange a look with Terezi, and both of them intervened to grab Karkat and Vriska, respectively. Terezi stayed with Vriska near the wall with the drawings, nagging at her about something, and Kanaya brought Karkat back to sit next to her with a gentle but firm hand in his arm. Neither Vriska or Karkat looked happy about being reprimanded for their behaviour, but they both sat on the floor with a pout and remained quiet.

“Okay folks, looks like I will be the one directing this meeting for a bit,” Terezi exclaimed with a loud laugh. “Let’s try to not diverge from the topic again, no more interruptions unless I ask a question!”

“So, what, do we need to raise our hands to talk now?” Dave asked in a mocking tone.

“That’s a wonderful suggestion, Dave!” the troll agreed immediately. “From now on, if someone has anything to add, raise your prong, or hand in the case of the humans, and wait until I point to you before talking. No interruptions, and no more debates until the time we have already established especially for it.”

“I was not serious," Dave protested, at which Terezi hit him with a piece of chalk.

“You didn’t raise your prong, Dave,” she nagged at him with a sinister smile. “If the rules of this meeting are clear, let’s continue!”

For a moment, it looked like Vriska wanted to complain, but Terezi shot her a venomous look and she remained quiet. It was amazing how a blind girl could be so aware of everyone and everything surrounding her and be able to react to visual signs like facial expressions. It could be an interesting conversation to have some day.

“I will explain from the beginning,” she began. “As you can see, we divided our plan in three separate blocks regarding what we consider to be the most important topics. These blocks are not definitive, and we can add more later if further ideas come to mind, or if our current situation changes.”

She gestured to the three blocks written in chalk of different colours and separated by double lines between them. So far, it made sense.

“First we have _‘Survival game’_ and it involves everything we need to survive a sweep and a half in this desolate meteor, until we reach the next session,” she explained, pointing to the column written in blue. “The second section is labelled _‘Killing Jack’_ , as everyone but me can see, and it's literally about it: killing the last boss,” Terezi kept explaining while referring this time to a column in red. “And, finally, the last section, labelled _‘Win game’_ focuses on everything we will need to make sure happens in the new session if we want to win the game this time,” she ended, pointing to the last column which was in a violet colour.

Rose took a moment to check the three columns and noticed that all sections were divided in subsections, each with its own title and a list of things to consider. Excluding the fact that it was written in a wall with chalk in a rather childish style, it was a well organised and well thought off system. Near her, Kanaya hesitantly raised her hand.

“Yes, Kanaya?” Terezi asked.

“Is this the appropriate protocol?” she questioned. “I was unsure about the _‘raising our prong’_ part.”

“You have done a spectacular job so far, good citizen,” Terezi replied. “Did you have a question or were you just testing the process?”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” Kanaya answered. “I know you have not explained each section in detail yet, but I could not fail to notice that in the last section you have forgotten to include the fact that we need to somehow find a new matriorb.”

Rose checked the column again and realised that the troll was right, there was no mention to it anywhere. It was not surprising that Kanaya had been the one to notice. Rose was not sure of what exactly was a matriorb, but she knew that it was related to troll’s reproduction and it was especially important for Kanaya. She looked back to the trolls leading the meeting, and it was clear in their faces that they had just realised that Kanaya was right.

“I knew I was forgetting something!” Vriska exclaimed in a clearly frustrated voice.

“How could we have forgotten to add the matriorb?” Terezi was asking with an incredulous tone, before turning back to Kanaya. “Good catch, Kanaya, I guess we would have noticed it eventually but better sooner than later.”

And with that, she decaptchalogued a box of Crayon chalks and threw a violet one to Vriska. The other troll changed into her God Tier outfit and, with a flutter of her butterfly wings, she flew to the subsection _‘Need’_ under _‘Win game’_ and added the word _‘Matriorb’_. A bit of pixie dust fell to the floor with each movement of her wings. It was curious how simultaneously similar and different the God Tier states were for trolls and humans, respectively. Rose had not tried to fly without her God Tier clothes yet, mostly because she didn’t have other clothes, but now she was curious to see if she actually needed to be in that state to be able to fly.

“Okay, now that this is done, let’s try to focus on the first section for now,” Terezi directed. “It was a useful addition, Kanaya, don’t get me wrong. However, if we try to do everything at once, we would need a full perigee. For now, let’s focus on the first section, which is the most urgent at the moment.”

Rose could fully agree with that statement. There was no point in worrying about killing Jack or the intricacies needed to finally win the game if they didn’t manage to survive until then. There were different subdivisions in the first section and the first one was called rules.

“First of all, as Vriska already mentioned, we decided that some basic rules would be needed to ensure a pacific living arrangement in the meteor,” Terezi explained. “Please, take a look at them and we can discuss together if they are appropriate or if we should add something.”

Kanaya was already raising her hand again, clearly to insist on her previous complaint to the first rule, which was in fact _‘no killing or serious injuries’_. However, Terezi answered her before she could even mention her problem with the currently imprisoned troll.

“I know your opinion about our resident clown, Kanaya,” she said. “But Vriska and I didn't want to rush into murdering a player that could still possibly have an important role to play in the new session. For now, let’s consider him a special case to deal with in the near future.”

Rose thought about it, she was not sure if the clown was needed or not for their victory. So far, she had only been able to use her new powers once to get the knowledge that they needed to get to the new session and how to do it.

“I am afraid to say that I am still not completely adjusted to my new Seer abilities,” she decided to say. “However, I will try to See if Gamzee is a vital piece needed for the path to our victory.”

“There is no rush, Lalonde,” Vriska answered. “He can stay where he is for now, but it will be indispensable to have any information of the future that you could get with your prognostication powers. Including Gamzee’s relevance in all this.”

Rose turned to look at Vriska, surprised by her polite tone. She was not sure of what the troll was thinking, or what were her motivations. She was, after all, an individual full of contrasting traits. As far as she had seen, Vriska was arrogant, egocentric, narcissistic and had a vicious need to stay in control and look superior. She had on several occasions threatened to mentally control the other trolls, which regardless of whether she was actually capable of it or not, it was not exactly a polite thing to do. Additionally, Rose was sure that she was responsible for the death of at least one of the trolls, and possibly more in the past, if Sollux and Karkat’s previous reaction was a hint. However, she was also the one suggesting a non-killing rule and she had obviously spent considerable time thinking about what they needed to do to survive and win. At this point, Rose was not sure if that behaviour was an indication of a complex personality, or if the troll only cared about beating Jack and winning the game, and they were her best way to do it. Regardless of her motives, the list of rules was quite generic.

** SURVIVAL GAME **

** RULES **

1\. NO KILLING OR SERIOUS INJURIES

2\. PRIVATE AND COMMON AREAS

3\. NO HIERARCHY/LEADER

“What do you mean with no leader?!” Karkat protested. “We can’t be without a leader, I stopped bossing everyone around for a few hours and look what happened!”

“There will not be another murder spree, Karkat,” Terezi replied. “It would be against the first rule. If anyone begins hurting someone else intentionally, we will stop him or her, together.”

“Maybe it would be beneficial for everyone if you elaborate on the full meaning of these rules and why you chose those in particular,” Kanaya commented then. “I am particularly intrigued about the relevance of the second one.”

“Yeah, do we actually need a rule about where we sleep?” Sollux agreed.

“Your protests have been noted, citizens, however we really believe in the importance of common spaces," Terezi answered. “But, let’s go in order, if you don’t mind. As we already mentioned, no killing or seriously fighting with other inhabitants of this meteor will be tolerated, with the possible exception of Gamzee.”

That sounded like a reasonable rule, but Rose didn’t like that it was a bit ambiguous.

“As I already asked before: what do you consider a serious injury?” she asked again.

“Everything life-threatening,” Vriska answered immediately.

“Or something that causes major damage to the human or troll, such as the loss of an extremity or sense, or any internal damage or illness that can leave serious repercussions behind,” Terezi added, slapping Vriska’s head.

“Che, weaklings,” the other troll girl murmured.

“So, small fights that don’t have serious consequences would not be included?” Sollux asked with a pensive face. “We are going to a battlefield after all, and we will need to train for it at one point.”

That was a good reflection from the troll’s part. Rose also wanted to keep her fighting skills at her best, but it was hard to do it inside the meteor.

“It’s not like we can fight here, in any case,” Rose replied. “I wouldn’t like to destroy our only transportation and living arrangements by accident when we are still navigating paradox space.”

“As if you could do it anyway, human,” was Sollux's mocking answer.

Rose turned slowly to him, offended by what the troll was insinuating. She had thought that Sollux was one of the almost-nice trolls, but it seemed that she had been wrong. Arrogance was apparently a common defect in their species.

“I beg your pardon?” she asked him in a cold voice.

“You heard me, _human_ ,” he repeated, with a special emphasis in the last word. “I’m sure you believe that you are so strong and powerful, but your frame of reference is based on your weak species. You wouldn’t be able to hold your own against the weakest troll for more than a couple of seconds.”

Oh no, he had had to go that far. It was clear that this particular troll needed to be thrown off his pedestal. Rose decaptchalogued her wands and got up from the floor in calm and controlled movements.

“Would you like to have a demonstration?” she challenged him. “Maybe you would like to try fighting me? As I understand, you are currently the _‘weakest troll’_ in this meteor, am I correct?”

At that, Sollux got up from the floor too, in a much clumsier way. It reminded Rose of the fact that he was still injured at the moment. However, he growled at her threateningly from his higher height. Rose kept her eyes fixated on his, and her body relaxed but ready to jump to action at any second. She refused to back down, she knew very well that she was currently stronger than him, so she was not scared at all.

“Oooookay! Let’s everyone relax and drop our weapons!” Dave exclaimed, jumping to grab Rose’s arm.

“Are you actually challenging me to a duel, human?” Sollux growled, completely ignoring Dave.

“As you wish, but it will have to wait until you recover your full power,” Rose replied, also ignoring everyone else. “It would not do to have you using that as an excuse when you lose.”

“Rose, stop it, please,” she heard Dave whispering at her side.

“With my full power I could kill you without even meaning to,” the tall troll threatened her with an arrogant tone and a bored expression. “And then I would be in trouble for breaking these damned rules.”

“I am sure that if we have a referee and someone to stop me before I accidentally kill you, you will be alright,” Rose replied with an arrogant smile of her own.

The troll with bicoloured sunglasses didn’t reply for a few seconds, still looking at her with condescension. Then, he broke into laughter, denying with his head in an incredulous expression.

“You have courage, I admit that,” he said with a smile. “Fine, when I get my psionics back we will have our duel, and I will even try not to kill you. Even more, if you can actually endure me at my full power for more than one minute, I will recognize that I was wrong about your species.”

“That sounds fair,” Rose agreed, smiling too. “And if I fail to do that, I will recognise the troll's superiority, and even do whatever you want for a week. Deal?”

She captchalogued her wands and offered her right hand for a handshake. The troll didn’t doubt to accept immediately, but instead of shaking her hand, he actually grabbed her forearm. Rose also grabbed his, assuming that it was the way the trolls sealed pacts.

“Deal,” Sollux accepted with a huge smile.

After that, they let go of the other and relaxed, only to be assaulted by Kanaya and Dave, respectively. Behind them, Vriska was looking at them with a raised eyebrow and Karkat was having one of his ridiculous tantrums.

“You are really crazy, Rose,” was saying Dave by then. “We have been here only for three days and you are already picking fights!”

“Relax Dave, it will be fine,” she replied while trying to pass him. “You never saw me fighting during the game, but I am really strong. Also, it will not be a serious fight, I’m sure it will be fun.”

“Fun!” he exclaimed, raising his hands to heaven. “There is nothing fun in fighting, Rose! Have you completely lost your mind?!”

Rose stopped then and really looked at him. Dave seemed really worried and maybe even scared for her, it was hard to tell with his sunglasses hiding so much of his face. She thought about what she knew about her friend, the small glimpses of his life that she had managed to obtain with years of subtle interrogation. She didn't know the exact circumstances yet, but what she had gathered so far was that Dave had been in a bad situation at home. One where he had had to fight regularly with his Bro since he was a child, and where he was constantly in a low-level danger. She couldn't be sure of anything because he had never said it directly, but she knew how to read between the lines. Thinking about it, her aggressive attitude might not have been the best one to show in front of her probably traumatised friend.

“It will be fine, Dave,” she insisted, this time more seriously. “We will not be fighting for real; it will only be a competition. All of you will be there to intervene if something gets out of hand, right? And also remember that I’m conditionally immortal now. If anything, he will be in more danger than me.”

“Oh, yeah, I had forgotten that part,” her friend replied, a bit calmer now. “Promise me you will be fine?”

“I will be fine, Dave,” she insisted.

Finally, her ectobiology brother nodded and released his strong grip on her arm. Rose doubted for a second, but finally pulled Dave into a quick hug. He didn’t react to it, freezing up instead of reciprocating it, but she let him go anyway. They definitely needed to talk about Dave’s past. Maybe Rose’s past too, she would not be so arrogant to pretend that she didn’t have things she would like to explain and get off of her chest, too.

“So, which part of _no fighting_ did you not understand?!” Vriska asked in an almost scream. “We were literally talking about it when you decided to throw a duel challenge in there, Lalonde!”

“I think that it would be better to assume that completely avoiding infighting would be impossible,” Kanaya intervened. “However, I believe that Rose’s suggestion to have a referee and everyone interested there to avoid serious injuries could be beneficial for everyone in the long term. After all, as Sollux has mentioned, we will need to train to keep our fighting skills ready for the final battle.”

At that, Vriska deflated, clearly unable to refute her arguments.

“Fiiiiiiiine!” she conceded in the end. “But let’s keep serious fighting in controlled environments that would not seriously damage anybody or this meteor, understood? Duels are restricted to the dream bubbles, once we are sure that it won't affect the meteor.”

Everyone agreed to that and they finally could move to the second rule in their list. Everyone sat back on the floor again, and Rose noticed that the dynamic of the group had changed somehow. Now there was a more relaxed feeling in the air, as if all the previous small infighting had served to release a tension that no one had realised was there.

“Moving to the second rule,” Terezi began. “It's evident that all of us need to have our own restricted, private areas where we can have our own stuff and be alone if we wish. However, it would be more productive if we also have a common section where everyone can interact.”

“You mean like a living room?” Rose asked. “An area where we can all eat or simply spend time together?”

“I have no idea of what is a _‘living room’_ , Lalonde, but I’m guessing that is what you humans use instead of rumpusblock,” Vriska intervened. “In that case, the answer would be yes.”

“You mean that I would have to share some blocks with all of you on a regular basis?” Karkat complained in his usual loud voice. “Excellent, that was exactly what I needed in my life: spending my days surrounded by insufferable pricks, annoying me night and day!”

“If you need some time alone, you would always be able to go back to your private section, Karkat,” Kanaya argued. “From my point of view, I believe that it is a good idea to share some areas of the meteor, it would facilitate communication between everyone.

Rose kept quiet while, in front of her, Karkat was clearly trying to come up with a new argument to refute Kanaya’s logic. However, there was no reasonable way to do it, and it was clear that the troll had reached the same conclusion because he sighed and stopped complaining about it.

“Shall we vote, then?” Terezi asked with a huge smile.

Everyone agreed that it was a good rule and promised to respect each other’s private areas. That didn’t mean that they would not keep blocking their transportalizers from now on, but maybe with time it wouldn’t be such a necessity.

“Rose and I will need our own areas, then,” Dave commented. “We are staying in Kanaya’s section for now, but it would only be fair. And she deserves to have back her private space.”

“You could move to one of the empty sections,” Terezi agreed. “Maybe to Nepeta’s area, I think she mostly stayed with Equius, so it’s probably empty. Or we could empty another section, like the one from Tavros or Feferi.”

Right. As morbid as it was, Rose guessed that they would not suffer from lack of space if they were to take over the sections of all the dead trolls. She was not really enthusiastic about that idea, but they didn’t really have another choice. They couldn’t do anything to change the past, the only thing they could do was keep moving forward.

Half an hour later, they had outvoted Karkat in favour of not having a leader in the meteor at least until they reached the new session. The short troll argued and tried to force them into a dictatorship anyway, but in the end the majority decided against him. Rose didn’t really understand why being the one in charge was so important for the troll, especially after everything that had happened to his friends. Maybe that was exactly the reason. She remembered that Kanaya had mentioned something about him feeling responsible for the tragic death of the rest of the trolls. Could it be possible that Karkat was thinking that somebody else would die the moment he relaxed and let his guard down? She hoped it was not that or, if it was the case, that he would eventually learn how to relax and stop holding everything on his shoulders. Putting all that responsibility on himself was not the healthiest thing to do, precisely.

With their basic rules agreed upon, they decided to take a break and eat something. Everyone had brought their own food, as Vriska had asked, and they ate together on the floor in small groups. Eating reminded Rose that she was running out of food, and that she still hadn't breached that particular subject.

“By the way, does anyone know if there is an alchemiter in the meteor?” she asked. “I am running out of food and it would be really helpful.”

“Yes, there is a large room with four alchemiters in Eridan’s section,” Kanaya explained. “I can show you later.”

“Thanks, Kanaya, that would be delightful,” she accepted with a smile, happy to have one problem solved.

“That’s what we should discuss next,” Vriska added, moving from Terezi’s side to be near Rose. “Resources, beginning for the most basic ones like food and drinks. We still have a lot of leftover food everywhere from having twelve bored trolls trapped here for hours with nothing else to do than alchemize junk food. We should collect everything and put it in the same place.”

“I tried some of those, is all your food made of bugs?” Dave asked. “Because it wasn’t exactly easy in my stomach, and it took me hours to find a single toilet.”

That was another problem. During her exploration on the first day, Rose had managed to find only one toilet and it was nothing more than a hole in the floor, it had been repugnant. She did not know if carapacians didn’t need to use the restroom with the same frequency as humans, or if the meteor was never supposed to have inhabitants on it. Additionally, she still had not managed to find a single bed or a shower, and she refused to spend three years without showering.

“It’s not only the food,” she explained. “As grateful as I am for your help, Kanaya, I don’t think that humans are made to sleep in piles as you do. We will need proper beds and decent toilets. I also couldn't find any bathroom with at least a shower, or any kitchen where we could make some food. However, I did not have time to fully explore the meteor.”

“We have not been in the meteor much longer than you, either,” Terezi explained. “We were here for a bit more than eleven hours, and a large part of it was spent talking with you, guys.”

“Wait, all that time that you were talking to me happened in a few hours from your perspective?” Dave asked to Terezi. “We talked for years!”

“From your perspective, maybe, CoolKid,” Terezi replied. “But if we put together all the time actually spending writing and reading, it was like six hours from our perspective.”

“That’s crazy!” Dave insisted. “I get the ‘out of timeline’ stuff, but how could you keep track of everything happening in our timeline and still sound mostly coherent in our chats?”

“Well, it was easier for those of us who actually trolled you chronologically following your timeline,” Terezi explained. “Some stupider trolls, however, decided to make things more complicated for themselves for stupid reasons, and ended up frustrating themselves in the most absurd ways.”

“I CAN HEAR YOU, TEREZI!!” Karkat yelled from the other side of the room, where he had been sitting with Sollux.

“Wow, had he really heard us?” Dave whispered. “He is like a mile away.”

“He has a sixth sense for people talking about him,” Terezi whispered back with a conspirator shine in her glasses. “One time, Karkat…”

“OKAY!! THAT’S IT!!”

With that, Karkat walked towards them, Sollux lazily following after him. They sat near them, completing a circle that nobody had even noticed how or when it had been formed. Sollux looked at Rose momentarily with a strange expression, before avoiding her eyes and focusing on eating again. Curious. There was no sign of the arrogant troll that had mocked her race and accepted a duel with her minutes ago. Now, he was quiet and unassuming, he seemed almost shy and uncomfortable by the simple act of being there. It was almost like he was a completely different person. That was really intriguing.

“Stop talking about me, Terezi!” Karkat was saying at that moment. “I heard you say my name!”

“You really have a good hearing when it’s most convenient to you, Karkat,” Terezi replied. “It’s a shame you don’t listen when it really matters.”

“Going back to my first question,” Rose interrupted, trying to avoid another unnecessary drama. “Having an alchemiter is good news. I’m assuming that you also have a punch designix and a totem lathe, or an improved version of the alchemiter.”

“Yes, there is a punch designix and a totem lathe in the same room,” Kanaya confirmed. “However, now that we are out of the session, we won’t have any way to get new grist, so we might be more limited than ever in the type of resources we can fabricate.”

“With the added difficulty that we don’t have the punching codes for objects we don’t already have,” Rose added. “For example, human furniture like a bed or even a proper toilet.”

Having an alchemiter was already a huge advantage, and between all of them they probably had enough grist of different types to be able to alchemize all their basic needs. The real problem there would be to obtain the punching codes of everything they might need.

“That’s why we should compile all of our grist together and rationalise how everyone is using it,” Terezi agreed. “We don’t want to run out, especially of the rarer types.”

“There are also some monsters in the labs,” Vriska added. “Maybe they would still give us grist if we killed them. Or maybe there is even a machine to create more of them, that would provide us with a constant income.”

“It’s worth exploring the meteor further,” Terezi nodded. “We should also agree to keep all the grist in the same place so nobody spends all of it in alchemizing stupid things.” 

“Can’t we use the GristTorrent I installed into my computer for that?” Dave asked. “I used it mostly to take the excess of grist that John was not using, but I don’t know if it will work now that we are out of our session.”

“Hey, human, is that a program?” Sollux asked then, participating in the conversation for the first time. “That GristTorrent you mentioned, if it's a program, do you have it on your computer?”

Dave turned towards the troll with a pout.

“My name is not _‘human’_ , dude,” he complained. “It’s Dave Strider, Dave for my friends, but you can call me Strider or Mr. Strider. Sir is also okay.”

“Or CoolKid!” Terezi added.

“Whatever you say,” Sollux replied, rolling his eyes. “Would you answer my question? Is it a computer program or not?”

“Yes, and yes, I have it installed in my computer, but it’s probably not working anymore,” the human answered. “Why?”

“Show it to me,” Sollux ordered. “I can modify it so we can use it here.”

Rose’s ectobiology brother looked at him with a doubtful expression for a moment, but he seemed to agree because he decaptchalogued his weird laptop. It looked like a mix between his timetables and a regular computer, and knowing how alchemy worked, that was probably exactly what it was made off.

“Here, I only have my Turntop or my iShades, though,” Dave explained while he passed the computer to the troll. “It uses a weird keyboard; I can show you how it works.”

However, Dave’s offer was clearly unnecessary because the troll decaptchalogued his own keyboard and, after a quick look, he plugged it directly into the floating screen. Then, he began typing into it at an incredible velocity.

“Oh, wait, you will need my password,” Dave remembered. “It’s…”

“Predictable,” Sollux replied and, without even reducing his typing speed, he figured up Dave’s password on his own, and began opening files. “Wow, what a mess, you need to clean up your computer, human, it’s so full of stuff that it’s slowing me down.”

Dave was looking at the screen with such an astonished look in his face that Rose had to contain a giggle. She had never seen him being so openly surprised.

“Holy fuck,“ he muttered then. “That was a twelve characters long password, and you figured it up like it was nothing.”

“As I said: predictable.”

Rose came closer to see what the troll was doing, and was shocked when she saw a window open in Dave screen full of weird symbols and numbers being typed at such speed that it was difficult to even see them.

“Did you add your own language to Dave’s computer?” she asked him.

“Yeah, of course, how else I was supposed to use it?” the troll asked back, without even stopping typing. “It’s not like I can understand your human language, I adapted Trollian to change languages automatically and you are speaking alternian.”

“Am I?” Rose asked, surprised. “It’s not intentional, I can assure you.”

“It’s because you are a God Tier, Lalonde,” she heard Vriska say from a few seats away. “It’s the first badge we get, the _‘Gift of Gab’_.”

“There you go, I am not God Tier so I can’t understand human language,” Sollux repeated.

“Okay, fair enough,” she accepted. “But how did you add a completely new language to a computer entirely programmed in a different language? Did you call it alternian?” Rose insisted. “It would have taken you longer if you had to add a full alphabet and its grammatical rules manually.”

“Don’t be stupid, of course I didn’t add it manually,” Sollux refused, his fingers flying over the keyboard. “I created it sweeps ago and pre-installed it to my keyboard, that way I can use it on any computer with simply plugging it in.”

That was incredibly smart for his part. Rose spent a few more seconds looking at the screen, as astonished as Dave. In the black window, a code in red and blue was being written at an amazing speed, with some other program occasionally opening and closing next to it. She looked at Sollux. He was wearing a relaxed expression and his eyes were not leaving the screen for a second, reading the lines of code at the same amazing speed that he was typing it.

“That’s amazing,” she couldn’t stop herself from saying.

For her surprise, Sollux actually stopped typing and turned his head a bit to look at her for a moment, with clear surprise reflected in his eyes. He looked like he was going to say something, but Dave interrupted him.

“Oh, fuck! You are the troll’s hacker!” he exclaimed, his brain finally making the connection.

Sollux rolled his eyes and focused back on the screen, his fingers moving again.

“Congratulations Dave, your deduction skills have reached the basic level _‘Dense as a Brick’_ ,” she told him in a mockingly serious voice. “You can get your diploma in the secretary office.”

“Shut up, Rose!” he protested, clearly embarrassed.

Just at that moment, somebody pushed himself between them and leaned on Sollux’s shoulder to check on the screen, too. Somebody with small, rounded horns and a grey sweater.

“Two-coloured code, of fucking course it had to be a fucking two-coloured code!” Karkat exclaimed. “Your obsession with the number two is almost obscene, Sollux.”

“Fuck off, KK!” Sollux protested, trying to push him back from his shoulder without taking his fingers out of the keyboard. “You made me mess up my code!”

“Like that would ever happen,” he replied sarcastically. “How long would it take?”

“An hour, probably less if all of you leave me the fuck alone!” Sollux answered in an aggressive tone.

“Whatever, don’t forget to send us the program once you are done,” Karkat insisted, reaching down to leave a pink can on the floor next to Sollux, before pulling away from the other troll.

“As if,” was all the answer he got from the hacker.

Rose noticed that the can was from some type of soft drink that she supposed was probably high in sugar and calories. Sollux reached towards the can with one hand without even diverting his eyes from the screen and found it easily, as if he knew exactly where it was even without the need to look at it. Altogether, it was pretty clear to Rose that this kind of interaction between the two trolls was not new. Apparently, Sollux focusing on something in the computer and Karkat coming to check on him and providing him with drinks was something they were used to doing. She smiled and decided to leave the troll work in peace, grabbing Dave on her way and bringing him with her.

Near the wall, everyone else was debating what resources were more important and, for that reason, more urgent. Things like food, drinks, and something called recuperacoon were circled twice. It was clear, though, that everything was selected with the trolls’ needs in mind. She quickly decided to participate in the conversation, adding things to the list like beds, showers, water or even lights. Dave tried to convince them that they needed to add AJ and Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff comics to the urgent list, but Rose rushed to erase those words the moment he turned his back to the wall. They kept debating for a while, but eventually their major problem was clear.

“Our problem will be to get the punching codes for objects that we don’t currently have,” she declared. “Maybe we can take things out from the dream bubbles?”

“If we can captchalogue them it will probably be enough, right?” Terezi asked. “We only need the card code after all, we can write it down if needed.”

“Wouldn’t things from the dreams be just that? Fucking dreams?” Karkat protested. “Not like I would know, before the game I never dreamed.”

“What? For real?” Dave asked. “How is that possible? I have had millions of dreams.”

“Trolls usually sleep in sopor slime, which prevents us from having any dreams and allows us to be able to proper rest,” Kanaya explained. “If we did not have sopor, we would have ended crazy sweeps ago due to daymares induced by Feferi’s lusus, Gl'bgolyb.”

“Wait, you actually had a horrorterror living on your planet?” Rose asked, intrigued. “How? As I understand it, they are supposed to only reside in the deepest parts of paradox space. And would it be a problem now that you don’t have sopor slime?”

“I don’t believe it will be a problem anymore, now when we sleep we go to the dream bubbles instead of having daymares,” Kanaya explained. “And regarding Gl'bgolyb, it has always been in our old planet, as far as I know.”

“Yeah, the legend says that the Condesce brought it to Alternia with her, millennials ago,” Vriska explained. “It’s how the old fag managed to stay in power for so long, she only had to threat everyone with letting her lusus fuck the minds of half the troll population, and suddenly everyone turned submissive.”

“That’s a fucking legend, Vriska,” Karkat refused. “Legends don’t exist, it’s like your stupid fixation with your Ancestor. She is not real, get over it already.”

“It's real!” the troll girl protested. “And she was! I have her journal!”

“Regardless of the veracity of that particular legend, we have diverted from our original topic,” Kanaya interrupted. “We were talking about ways to obtain punch codes from objects we don’t currently possess.”

“Oh, wait! I almost forgot!” Dave said, then. “I had a camera that created new cards with ghost images of everything that I photographed. Let me see if I still have it on my sylladex.”

He looked through his sylladex and finally decaptchalogued a camera that looked like something made in a videogame with bad graphics. It was orange and yellow and it had a large, thin slot in the back.

“Here it is! The Captcharoid Camera!” he declared to everyone.

“Wooo! Soooo cooool!” Terezi exclaimed.

“That's a messed up camera like I have never seen before,” Karkat protested. “It doesn’t even seem real; it looks more like a joke camera from a shitty cartoon.”

“You’re the real joke here, dude,” her ecto-brother replied.

“Dave?” she called him, “What does your camera have to do with our current problem?”

“I will show you,” he told her. “Pass me your cookies, please, but don’t captchalogue them.”

Rose did as she was told and grabbed the half empty pack of cookies with caution to not captchalogue it into her sylladex. Dave used his camera to take a picture of the pack and immediately a new captchalogue card with a ghost image of her pack of cookies appeared through the camera's slot. Dave turned the card, and in the back there was a captchalogue code.

“Ok, now captchalogue them and we will compare the code,” he instructed her.

Again, Rose followed his instructions, and once she had her captchalogued card in her hands, she turned it and put it near Dave’s. The same code made of random letters and numbers was present in both cards. That was it! It was the perfect way to get codes from rudimental objects directly from the dream bubbles.

“That’s great! We can get codes from a lot of big stuff with it!” Terezi exclaimed. “CoolKid saved the night again!”

“He only took a fucking picture,” Karkat protested with a pout. “It’s not like he killed Jack or something like that.”

“Don’t be so jealous, dude,” Dave argued with an arrogant and satisfied smile. “Not everyone can have the coolness of a true-born Strider.”

“Coolness my fucking bulge!” Karkat protested, as usual.

“Strider, I have an important role for you,” Vriska interrupted. “You are responsible for obtaining as many codes as possible, so I want you taking pictures of absolutely everything you see. It doesn’t matter if it looks like a stupid, random object, I want a picture of it. You never know what code combination could make the ultimate weapon!”

“Sir, yes Sir!” Dave saluted before realising his error. “I mean, Ma’am, yes Ma’am. Or do you prefer Sir? Or any other title?”

“I don’t caaaaaaaare!” the troll sighed. “Just bring me the pictures!”

“Sure!”

Rose looked at her captchalogued cookies card. This could work. If they managed to get pictures of some raw ingredients they might even be able to actually cook something themselves. They would need a proper kitchen, but that was something relatively easy to get the codes of. Now, they just needed to pass through another dream bubble, and they would begin incrementing their supplies exponentially. She was not sure what was going to happen in the near future, but she had the sensation that it won’t be long now until the next bubble.

“We should make a list of the codes we already have and add the new ones we get to it,” she proposed. “That way, we will avoid repetitions or losing a code that might be useful at a later time.”

“Are you offering yourself for the job, Lalonde?” Vriska asked.

Rose thought about it. It was not like she had anything else to do and she actually enjoyed playing with the alchemiter. Sounded like a fun job, actually.

“Sure, I can take care of it,” she agreed. “In addition to any information I might gather from the future with my powers.”

“Perfect!” the troll smiled. “For my part, I believe I will take the job to explore this meteor in detail, I know for a fact that there are some monsters that might provide us with some extra grist and in any case it would be safer for everyone if they are dealt with. Maybe I will be lucky, and end up finding a hidden treasure or some additional information that could help us win the game!”

“Sounds fun! I can help you with that!” Terezi added. “But before that, I just got a great idea. Hey, Sollux!”

Terezi had to call the other’s troll name a couple of times more before she got any response from him. Even when he did, it was with his yellow eyes still fixed on the screen.

“What do you want, Terezi?!” he asked back. “I’m still not done with the new program, so stop bothering me about it!”

“It’s not that,” the girl replied while finally approaching her friend. “If we had a list of captchalogue codes, do you think you could predict the code of stuff we still don’t have? Like what you did with John’s rocket.”

That seemed to grab the other troll’s attention because he stopped typing and turned to look at her. He had a pensive look.

“I guess?” he answered. “I can make an algorithm that predicts some codes, but do you have any idea of how many trillions of possibilities there are out there? If you are going to ask me the code of specific stuff, I will need a huge database of codes to begin with.”

It was a reasonable petition, one that they could actually accomplish now that they had Dave’s camera, and the possibilities if it worked were astronomical. Was it really possible? Could Sollux provide the code for any random object she could think of, simply using a computer program? That sounded almost impossible, but, at the same time, hadn’t they left the meaning of impossibility behind them ages ago? He was clearly an amazing programmer, so if Sollux was saying that he could do it, Rose believed him.

“I will make a list with all the codes we obtain,” Rose told him. “When you have a moment, could you send me a template of all the information you would need to create an appropriate database of codes? If you are interested in it, of course.”

“Are you really asking me if I will be interested in creating an algorithm that will allow me to alchemize anything and everything I want?” Sollux asked rhetorically. “Because if you are, my answer is fuck yeah! And now, if you are done, leave me the fuck alone!”

Rose let out a surprised laugh at the contrast between the honest enthusiasm of the troll with the new project and his posterior sour attitude. It was totally unexpected to see those contrasted emotions so close together, especially after his previous act of superiority, when he was arguing with her. That troll had her completely confused, she could not figure him out at all. One moment he was bickering with Karkat or fighting with Vriska, but the next he was acting all scared and awkward. In the short time they had been here, he had also shown traits of superiority and arrogance, mixed with honest joy and sadness.

She was not trying to imply that an individual couldn’t be arrogant and feel sadness or joy at the same time. Humans, and she guessed also trolls, were not such simple creatures. They were full of complex and contradictory emotions, and everyone expressed them differently. But, with Sollux, that contradiction was almost tenfold, to the point that sometimes he seemed completely different beings. It was not a criticism per se, she actually liked that in him, it made him so much more interesting and harder to understand than the rest. She went back to the wall, where everyone else was still arguing about roles and things that needed to be done. Rose already had her role and a new personal project in mind: she was going to help Sollux with the code’s database and use that excuse to learn more about the troll. She was going to figure out the enigma called Sollux Captor.


	5. VULN3R4B1L1T13S

“BEHIND YOU, TEREZI!!!”

Instinctively, Terezi jumped to the side, just in time to avoid something crashing with the floor in the exact place where she was standing moments before. The loud sound of the explosion and other smaller collisions, probably chunks of the ground clashing with the walls, filled out the block, throwing her senses off for a bit. She crouched low and focused on the potent smell of charcoal and rust in front of her, creating a mental image of the monster. She easily avoided its next attack and counterattacked stabbing it on the side with her sword.

“DOWN!” she heard Vriska yell.

Terezi dropped to the floor again and waited until the smell of blueberry bubble-gum and excitement passed over her. Judging by the sound, Vriska had punched the black monster with her robotic arm, probably using a strength enhancement dice roll. The smell of rusty blood was now almost as strong as the charcoal black, and there was also a hint of fear in the air. The monster was almost dead, and it knew it. 

“Vris! Double strike!” she instructed.

Terezi got up from the ground and jumped high, did a pirouette in the air, and jammed her sword on the top of the smelly monster. She heard Vriska yelling in delight somewhere near the floor and the monster let go a painful scream. Then, it suddenly disappeared, taking his naughty smell and the pressure against her sword with it. Instead, the block was filled with a variety of nice scents with a ‘pop’ sound. Terezi landed on the ground and checked her surroundings with her senses. She could smell honey, grass, charcoal, cherry, milk, and the smell of cotton candy, which was similar to the sky of Skaia. Not a bad mix of grist this time.

“Yeaaah! We made it!” she heard her friend yell joyfully.

Terezi smiled, it was clear that Vriska was having fun exploring the meteor and killing all those nasty monsters. She didn’t blame her; it was a lot of fun.

“Of course we did it, this monster was so lame,” she agreed, laughing. “I’m happy it’s gone though, I will have the horrible smell of charcoal stuck in my sponge for weeks. 

She cleaned her sword of rusty blood with a quick movement of her wrist, resisting the temptation to lick it, and put her weapon back in its scabbard, turning it back into her faithful cane. She walked towards the nearest smell of honey and began taking all the yellow grist. When the sweet smell was gone, she moved to the nearest scent, this time the one that smelled like cotton candy. As usual, those were the type of grist more frequently found when killing monsters, the light blue build grist. Unfortunately, they already had trillions of them in their collective GristTorrent, and the principal application of that type of grist was building up their hives. They were also needed for alchemising some objects but in small amounts compared to other types of grist, which made them almost useless in their current situation.

“Here, take this!” she heard Vriska call her from her right.

She turned to her and caught up the cherry smelling object she had thrown to her. She licked it and felt a tremor going down her posture pole when the its nice smell combined with the metallic cherry taste. Blood grist, her favourite. She sighed while she put it fully inside her mouth, it was so good!

“I knew you would like it,” commented Vriska, her satisfaction clear in her tone.

“Mmm mmm!” nodded Terezi, enjoying the shivers travelling her posture pole with each new slide of her tongue over it.

Soon the taste of the object weakened, so, with sorrow, Terezi took it out of her mouth and let it fall into her grist cache. She kept collecting grist, licking some of the more pleasantly smelling ones, until the block smelt only of concrete and dust. She wondered how much grist she had in her personal cache now that there was no server player to check it for her. She knew she had lots, like everyone else since Sollux had installed GristTorrent to all of their computers. The new application allowed them to share all their grist, automatically distributing it equally between their grist caches. 

They had especially an abundance of built grist because Sollux had begun the game with an astronomical amount of it, due to being the last player to enter their session. Kanaya and Vriska also had a decent amount, while Gamzee had spent most of Terezi’s in building stupid and useless structures instead of focusing on making her hive taller. However, she had had lots of other types of grist, some of them exclusively found on her planet. Even with the astronomical amount of grist that they used for the Final Alchemy, and the grist they lost with the death of some players, they still had tons left over, collectively.

“More built grist, as if we didn’t have enough,” complained Terezi. “Do you think there is a way to change it into other types of grist?”

“I don’t know, but it would be really helpful,” answered Vriska. “Ask the nerds to look into it later.”

The _‘nerds’_ , as Vriska called them, were Sollux and Lalonde. The first one for obvious reasons, he had been obsessed with computers, programming and grubgames since he had been a wriggler, but the fact that Lalonde was not much better than him had been a surprise for everyone. The human was not a _‘nerd’_ in the same sense as Sollux. Instead of being interested in computers, she was obsessed with books, any source of information about the next session, and the alchemiter. Together, they had mounted a kind of office-slash-lab in the block with the alchemiters, adding a few tables, computers, and other random stuff. Both of them spent almost all their time there, working on creating a database of punch codes and other personal projects. In only a few weeks, their food reserves had tripled, and they even managed to alchemize some basic furniture, like chairs and tables, based on things that were already in the meteor and a few codes they obtained the last time they travelled through a dream bubble. 

“Yeah, I will ask them to look into it. It’s such a waste to have so much build grist when we can’t use it for anything,” agreed Terezi. “Let’s explore a bit more before going back, though.”

Her friend agreed and both of them walked to the back of the block, towards a door that the monster had been warding. The door smelled like old wood and it sounded thick when kicked with Terezi’s cane. She let Vriska open it, as it was easier for her friend to find the door handle, and followed her inside. The sound of her cane hitting the ground with each step was suddenly amplified, and the smell of dust, wood, and paper inundated Terezi’s nostrils. A big block full of paper, probably books. Lalonde would love it.

“A bookhive?” she asked aloud while she took a few moments to reorientate herself in the new space.

“A huuuuuuuuge bookhive!” laughed Vriska.

There was the sound of fingers snapping next to her, and the smell of cantaloupe and blueberry were suddenly stronger than usual. She heard wings flapping and a bit of stardust falling around her. Vriska had transformed into her God Tier clothes then, probably to fly to the highest bookshelf. Terezi walked further into the block, counting her steps and listening carefully to the sound echoing in the block. It was a really big block, approximately twenty steps long to the far wall. She followed that wall with a prong on it, resisting the temptation to use her tongue to see it better. She had already tasted the walls of the meteor before, and cement was a boring and displeasing taste. There were no other hallways or any door that she could detect. However, she found a large table with some papers on it. She blew on them to get rid of the dust before licking the first one, it was a large text about some mythological bullshit. She recognised the word _‘Angel’_ in it, wasn’t Eridan’s planet full of them?

“Oi, Vriska!” she called but nobody answered.

With a sigh, she took the papers and walked back to the first bookshelf, following the easy identifiable trace of blueberry stardust. As expected, her friend was still checking the books on the top shelf.

“Ooooooi, Vris!!” she called again.

“What?” answered Vriska, still floating in mid-air.

“Do you remember what those things on Eridan's planet were called?” she asked her. “Angels, right?”

Some stardust fell over her face and Terezi sneezed. Fucking magic pixie wings, she would be smelling blueberry for hours now. She focused on the smell and sounds of her friend to localise her; she was too high for Terezi to reach her and she was not willing to make a fool of herself trying to grab her with a jump and missing. Karkat would have done it. She smiled when she imagined the grumpy troll falling to the floor and having one of his well-patented tantrums. He was so funny and adorable. Funorable! It was a shame that now they were not as good friends as they had been in the past. Things had been complicated between them lately.

“You mean his consorts?” asked her friend. “The big black winged serpents that he decided to exterminate for no apparent reason?”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “I just found these papers on a table at the back of the block, and they mention something about them.”

“Oh, let me see!” exclaimed Vriska, descending quickly to the floor. 

Terezi passed the papers to her and walked around while she was reading them. She approached a shelf full of books and began reading their titles, which most of them were ridiculously funny, like _‘How to cook volcano rocks’_ or _‘Gabbling memories of a gab monster’._ There was no apparent classification by subject, chronology, or alphabet. Most of the books didn’t even have authors, and by their texture they were more similar to personal journals than proper books.

“I don’t think this is relevant,” she heard Vriska commenting. “Mostly some legend of a mythological creature.”

Yeah, that was the impression Terezi had had with the few sentences she had read. It sounded boring, full of metaphors and bullshit useless information. She had no patience for books like those, she really preferred the orderly structure of her law manuals.

“Do you think you would find anything useful here?” Terezi asked.

She felt Vriska turning to her before looking around again, probably to the rows and rows of books. The smell of her previous joy and excitement had changed into doubt and disappointment.

“Maybe?” she answered, Terezi felt the blueberry smell getting weaker and the cantaloupe smell completely disappear, she deduced that Vriska had turned back to her regular clothes. “It would take perigees though to get through all of these books.”

She didn’t sound enthusiastic about that prospect at all. She could sympathise with her, Terezi was not a fan of literature research. Especially if she was not allowed to lick the pages. It was not her fault if all those tiny little letters smelled the same to her.

“You don’t smell happy about it,” she commented. “I thought that this was part of your plan, the _‘finding information’_ part."

“I will never understand how you can smell emotions or thoughts, that’s creepy,” protested Vriska. “And I like exploring, not reading books. That’s more Lalonde’s area than mine.”

Terezi didn’t understand it, either, but she could really do it. Since she had been blinded she had been capable of identifying some of the other trolls’ emotions through specific scents. It was not always easy. Some trolls exuded stronger smells than others and they were all a bit different for each individual. She could associate a general smell to a type of emotion, like happiness, fear, anger, sadness, or yearning. However, she could not always distinguish the smell of complex feelings.

That was one of her main problems with Karkat, he was always such a loud mess of theoretically opposed emotions that Terezi was always misinterpreting him. She had actually known of his conflicted feelings towards her even before he did, because his smell kept changing drastically every time they were together. At the beginning it had been only ‘red pity’ and yearning, but with time it acquired traces of the ‘pitch black’ smell mixed in it. That smell kept getting stronger and stronger until it was almost pure ‘pitch black’ with traces of ‘red pity’. At the time, it had confused her and thrown her a bit out of balance. It was not the vacillation thing that was most strange, but the fact that both smells were usually mixed together. How could someone have red pity and black pitch feelings at the same time? Were her senses deceiving her or was Karkat actually feeling both emotions for her? Simultaneously? What did that mean? And what did he want from her, then, red or black? 

It also didn’t help that, since the moment that all of them were isolated together in the meteor, she began noticing Karkat’s pitch interest for Sollux. It got worse when she noticed that, sometimes, she could also smell traces of ‘red pity’ between them, mixed with the ‘pitch black’ smell. Terezi had long suspected Karkat and Sollux to be in a dark quadrant together, and she didn’t really mind it, but smelling Karkat having red pity feelings for both her and the other troll had been really confusing. She knew that it was not something that Karkat was doing consciously, he probably had no idea of it. And maybe it had been unfair for her part to read his emotions without permission, but it seeded doubt in her mind every time it happened. In contrast, she could not smell the human’s feelings at all. She was probably smelling them but she was not able to associate the scents to any emotion. Maybe that was why she found Dave’s company so relaxing, she didn’t have any idea of what he was thinking when he was with her and that was liberating in a way.

“I don’t really know how I’m doing it, but I can sometimes smell strong feelings,” explained Terezi. “Not always and not with everyone. I don’t really know why or how. I couldn’t smell it when I could still see.”

“Maybe it’s because you are blind now?” asked Vriska. “As if your other senses were enhanced to compensate for it? Maybe they are actually better now thanks to that?”

Terezi didn’t need her sense of smell to hear the smugness in Vriska’s voice. She knew exactly what she was thinking: that Terezi’s senses were improved and she was better now than when she wasn’t blind. And that it was all thanks to Vriska. That, in her wicked way, Vriska had helped her to be better, stronger. She would probably claim now that it had been her intention all along, even when both of them knew that it was not the case. Vriska had no right to claim that her past mistakes had been done with Terezi’s best interests in mind. It would be the worst lie, and it was making Terezi really angry only thinking about it.

“Don’t you dare say it,” Terezi warned with a growl.

“Don’t say whaaaaaaaat?” asked Vriska in a mocking tone.

Terezi grabbed the other girl’s shirt and pulled her down until their faces were at the same height, millimetres from each other.

“Don’t you dare claim that you blinding me helped me in any way,” she growled. “Don’t have the shame globes to insinuate, in any remote way, that when you made me look directly into the sun you were thinking of what it was best for me. You have no FUCKING IDEA of what it did to me or how much it took me to adjust!”

She let Vriska go and turned back to the exit, bumping against the other troll’s side in her way out. That was enough exploring and enough Vriska for the night, maybe even for a couple of nights. Terezi was too angry to stay around her, she needed to cool down her thinkpan before she broke the first rule she had insisted on implementing only a perigee ago. No killing, remember Terezi? 

“Wait, Tez!” she heard Vriska call her and she stopped for a moment. “Ok, you are right, I was going to say that, and it would have been a lie. I didn’t do what I did because I wanted you to get stronger.”

Well, look at that, Vriska was capable of admitting her mistakes. Although she had not said that it had been a mistake, yet. Terezi decided to wait and see if spidertroll would finally grow up and apologize for maiming her, or if she would twist it again in her usual way.

“But even if it was not my intention, you have to admit that in the end it benefited you,” continued Vriska. “So, in a way, I unconsciously helped you get stronger. So, it is not that bad, right?”

And there it was. The Vriska twist. It was uncanny how the other girl had the ability to talk around her mistakes and failures and transform them into something positive, something that everyone should thank her for doing. It repulsed Terezi when she did that. 

“I didn’t get stronger THANKS to your actions! I got stronger because I HAD TO as a consequence of what you did!” Terezi replied, angrily. “You don’t get to take credit for how much I worked to be who I am right now! My accomplishments are MY OWN!”

With that, Terezi forced herself to leave the block, stomping angrily to her section of the meteor. Vriska didn’t follow her.

* * *

Nothing, nothing everywhere. Terezi turned her smelloscope in all directions until she finally got a glimpse of odour in the distance. Probably a dream bubble. It was in the wrong way though, on the side of the meteor instead of directly in front of them. It was highly improbable that they would go through it. Unless the space in paradox space changed and casually put the bubble in their trajectory. It had happened last time, not a thing on their way and suddenly they were all in Vriska's planet. It had been only their second dream bubble and they hadn’t done more than a few experiments: checking if walking away in a dream bubble meant that they were also moving blindly inside the meteor, trying to captchalogue stuff, and hurting themselves slightly to see if it actually hurt and if the damage stayed once they were back. Dave had even tried to use his Captcharoid camera, as he seemed to always have it in his sylladex, and it had worked perfectly.

Everyone knew that visiting a bubble while asleep had no consequences on their physical bodies, even dying only made you wake up. Being physically inside a dream bubble, however, could be different. Nobody wanted to fall off the meteor without even realising it, or actually ending dead for playing around recklessly. For this reason, last time nobody had moved further than a couple of steps and no ghosts approached them either, it had been a boring and uneventful time. They had not been really prepared to explore further into the bubble then, it was deemed to be too dangerous to do it without actually understanding the basic rules of physically being inside a bubble. Luckily, they had a better idea now and they would be able to go explore the bubbles next time they found themselves inside one. 

Terezi left her smelloscope alone and moved back to where she had a small meeting of dragon plushies. There was really no point in observing their surroundings when space and time were in constant fluctuation. However, Terezi liked to come to the surface of the meteor sometimes. It was relaxing and it helped her to clear her mind. She sat down on the ground and took out the notebook she always kept in the same captchalogue card, the one that smelt like a blue lagoon drink and that reminded her of a particular buffoon with clothes of a similar colour. She sighed. On the first page of the notebook there was a list of everything that John had changed with his retconning, or at least those things that she was almost sure were his fault. Terezi did not need to lick the papers anymore to read it, she had the list memorised.

H3 STOL3 MY W1TN3SS B3FOR3 3NT3R1NG TH3 G4M3 (CONF1RM3D)

D1D H3 T4K3 MY R3D SC4L3M4T3 TOO? (1T N3V3R 4PP34R3D 4G41N SO PROBABLY NOT)

OR TH3 P1NK ON3? (SHRUG)

(WHY MY DR4GONS 4NYW4Y?)

Terezi had been collecting scalemates since she was a grub, and she had piles and piles of them by now. Some of her dragons were kept in her respiteblock, in her old hive, but there were a lot of them hanging from trees in the near forest, too. She had spent sweeps using the plushies for her role-playing games and for practicing her legislacerator abilities. Kanaya sometimes fixed the broken ones for her, but sending packages to their respective isolated hives could take perigees. For this reason, Terezi tended to have replicas of the same scalemate in her hive. John had confessed of having stolen some of them with his retcon abilities, but it was hard to remember every plushie she had lost in her life, or even if one in particular was actually lost or still hanged somewhere, forgotten. Well, now all of them were lost anyway, burned with her planet. However, she could be sure of at least one disappearance: the green dragon that had been a witness in Senator Lemonsnout trial. She remembered it clearly because he was supposed to be mysteriously murdered just before the trial, but when she turned her back to the scalemate for a moment, it disappeared. That had been before even beginning playing Sgrub. The dragon had appeared again a perigee later, when she was already trapped in the meteor with the other trolls. When exactly had that been, again? She checked her list.

TH3 W1TN3SS R3TURN3D 4T T4VROS D34TH 1NV3ST1G4T1ON (WHY?!!)

Oh, right, just in the middle of the investigation of Tavros’s death. She had not been actually investigating it seriously because she already suspected it had been Vriska’s fault. However, the sudden apparition of her lost witness out of nowhere had been strange enough to put her out of her role-playing game. But what had been the point of it? And why that scalemate in particular? Maybe it was only because it was easier to remember exactly which dragon it was, but the fact that it was in particular a _' _w_ itness’_ might also be relevant. Was it some kind of tip? What had she found in the murder scene at that time? She remembered smelling stardust and a faint trace of hope. At that moment she had not thought about it, but those were clearly traces of Vriska and Eridan’s scents. 

What else? Oh, right, she had also heard Gamzee around and she actually smelled him a few floors under her. Terezi clearly remembered that he was honking, screaming, and generally being weirder than usual. Now that she was properly thinking about it, he was walking in the direction of where she later found Nepeta and Equius’ bodies. Suspicious. Why hadn’t Terezi considered Gamzee’s behaviour strange, then? Or at least stranger than usual? She remembered actually thinking that he was funny but inoffensive. What a joke! If she had known at that moment what was going to happen, she could have stopped him! Wait a moment. She saw a murderer, just before he committed his crime, so she technically had been a witness herself. Like her green dragon. Was that it? Was she supposed to follow Gamzee and stop him?! Did she fail to understand her own message?

Terezi hugged her strut sticks and hid her face between her nubs. She could have stopped him then; she could have saved them. She could have saved Nepeta. Her sweet but fearsome friend Nepeta. The only one in their group that loved role-playing as much as her. If her future-self had expected her to save the olive blooded girl, she had completely failed. Terezi hoped that her failure at that particular mission didn’t mean that they were all doomed now. Thinking better about it, Lalonde had seen a way to victory with her powers, so there was probably still some hope. Also, maybe Terezi was reading too much into some time shenanigans that might or might not mean anything at all. John could have been pranking her for no reason at all, it was his type of thing, after all. It had been a weird way to send a message, at least. She was sure that she had gotten actually direct and logical sentences at some point. She checked her notes again.

1T W4S G4MZ33, YOU 1D1OT

There, that had been clear and in context. Or at least until John had decided to turn that into an interrogation about personal stuff that had not even happened to her yet. Better not to check that part for the moment. There had been other direct instructions, even if she wasn’t able to read them, so she could not be completely sure.

PUNCH OUT VR1SK4 4ND S4V3 H3R L1F3 (GU3SS 1 FUCK3D UP TH3R3)

G1V3 H3R JOHN’S W4LL3T (HOW & TO WHOM?)

SOLLUX H4S TO ST4Y (OR 4P4R3NTLY K4RK4T D13S?)

She didn’t know the exact phrasing her future-self had used to instruct John what to do, but she could make approximate suppositions based on the context. For example she knew, thanks to Kanaya and Karkat's inability to keep a single secret, that the reason for Sollux staying in the meteor was that, apparently, Karkat would have died otherwise. John had also said the exact sentence about his wallet, but he had not had the item with him at that moment or knew who was supposed to receive it. The human had thought that future-Terezi had made a mistake on that point, but Terezi sincerely doubted it. She had been able to predict exactly where and when to send John before, so, why had she not sent him to retrieve his wallet before going to the meteor? Like what happened with the dragon. Maybe that was the point of all the moving-scalemates-around thing? To prove to her that she could have made John retrieve his wallet but chose not. As if saying that there was a reason for that or that it was important that the wallet stayed where it was.

Maybe it was not his wallet in particular what they needed, but a wallet like his? Hmm. She should better highlight that and mention it to Vriska and Lalonde later, maybe even write it down on the War Wall. It would have to wait a bit, though, Vriska had been avoiding her for a week now, since their disagreement on their last excursion to the depths of the meteor, when they found the bookhive. Oh, crap! She had completely forgotten to tell Lalonde about the bookhive! That would not do, she had been too distracted lately. She decaptchalogued her palmhusk and sent a quick message to the human, mentioning their newly discovered bookhive, and asking Lalonde to remind her to show it to her at a later time. She turned back to her last two annotations.

YOU DON’T N33D H1M (WHO?!)

That text had appeared written in a blueberry smelling chalk on the side of her hive, weeks before the end of their session. The stupid buffoon had also written _‘this is John by the way, ho ho’_ , which didn’t mean absolutely anything to her at that moment because it had been long before she knew about the human’s existence. It had also been clearly off script, there was no way future-her had told John to write that. It had been weird then and really confusing because, at that time, Terezi had just finished one of the most flushed conversations she ever had with Karkat. She had been happy and thinking about the short troll when she read that message and it had messed her up pretty badly. 

The message had not specified whom it was warning her about but a part of her had automatically associated it with Karkat. Terezi was not sure how much it had affected her but, with the hindsight of a few perigees of distance from that moment, now she realised that maybe that had been another factor in their fall out. It was not like Karkat was blameless though, he had at some point almost vacillated to the black quadrant on her, even before they were officially matesprites. But Terezi had also been a bit more cautious and suspicious of him after that message. It was possible that it wasn’t actually about Karkat, but the timing had been too suspicious. Well, it would have probably ended bad anyway, judging by John’s other improvised message. 

LONG STUP1D JOHN’S R4MBL1NG B4S1C4LY W4RN1NG M3 TO NOT D4T3 K4RK4T OR D4V3

(WH1CH 1S NOT H1S FUCK1NG BUS1N3SS, 4ND 4LSO S3R1OUSLY?!!)

She still had the original text with her, but she didn’t need anything else than that short summary in her notes. It had been infuriating enough the first time she had read the full message, there was no need of a rehearsal. Apparently, future-Terezi had dated Dave and Karkat at some point and it had ended badly for everyone. However, it was clear that John was referring to the previous message and that he didn’t know who she was warning herself against, either. Karkat seemed like a logical answer, based on the moment and place where the first message was placed. But then, why hadn’t she actually told John? Or at least wrote it in the message he was supposed to copy? If John already knew of a previous relationship between her and Karkat, there was no point in hiding it, right? Unless, of course, future-Terezi didn’t know that John knew. Karkat had the annoying tendency to scream his feelings for everyone to hear them, and John and Dave were actually friends. He could have heard about their respective relationships with her from both of them. 

Or it could be someone else? It said _‘him’_ , so it was clearly a guy, and the only ones currently in the meteor were Karkat, Dave, Sollux and Gamzee. Sollux had not been in the meteor last time. so he was ruled out. Also, it was Sollux so no, thanks. Terezi liked the appleberry blast smell of his blood and he was actually a cool guy, kind of like Dave actually, but she was definitely not romantically interested in him and doubted she would ever be. So, discounting him, in the last timeline there were only three guys in the meteor. If the message was not referring to Karkat or Dave, there was only one possible option: Gamzee.

Terezi couldn’t control herself and began laughing. She laughed so hard that she let go of her notebook and ended up rolling on the ground, with her prongs holding her hurting sides. Even some tears of mirth escaped her burned lookstubs. Dating Gamzee. Right, like something like that could EVER happen! 

Whatever, better not to date anyone, only to be safe. Not even ridiculous options that could have never happened in a hundred sweeps. She laughed again. Gamzee, seriously ridiculous.

* * *

“Maaayooor, where are you?” called Terezi the moment she was transported into her private area.

She sniffed around the principal block, noticing the new colour decorating one of the walls. It smelled like cotton candy with a bit of milk. Blue with white, like the sky of Skaia, full of oracle clouds. Nice. She heard little steps coming closer from the corner of the block and when she turned to the source, she could smell oil slick, sweaty clothes, and anxiety. Sometimes the Mayor’s smell reminded Terezi of Jack’s, but she supposed it was expected as both of them were black carapacians, after all. Luckily for everyone, the dirty clothes that the Mayor was always wearing made them distinctive enough to not cause too much confusion. That, and the lack of liquorice’s smell.

“It’s me, silly, don’t be afraid,” insisted Terezi.

Finally, the Mayor seemed to recognise her because they ran to welcome her with their usual enthusiastic movements. The little carapacian had not said a word since they had woken, a perigee ago, but it was clear that they could write properly, so they were not stupid. Terezi didn’t know if carapacians were all voiceless or if it was only the Mayor. She didn’t know much about their species, really. Only that they were the fodder used during the Big War in Skaia’s battlefield and that they were made with cloning technology. She didn’t even know if the mayor was a guy, a girl, or something else. 

“How are you today?” she asked. “Is your wound hurting you?”

It was not easy to communicate with someone that did not speak, especially with Terezi’s own impediment. She was always saying that she could _‘see’_ as well as everyone else, but that was not accurate. Terezi’s highly developed senses allowed her to have a general idea of her surroundings and identify people and objects, but at the same time it was hard for her to detect facial expressions or subtle movements. She compensated this through reading the intentions of everyone in the subtle hints they released in their smell and other body reactions, like sweat or tears, and even reading superficial thoughts and emotions. It was easy to tell with other trolls, maybe because Terezi had had sweeps of practice to perfectionate her senses. However, it was harder with the humans and carapacians, mostly because they smelled different and Terezi still didn’t have a mental dictionary of what those smells meant. However, the Mayor usually found a way to make others understand them. Tonight, they decided to grab her prong, apparently trying to guide her somewhere.

“What do you want to show me?” she asked with a smile.

She let the carapacian lead her to the corner of the block, where it continued in perpendicular for a few steps. They stopped in front of the wall on the left side and she heard the Mayor’s prong hitting the wall a couple of times. Okay, so there was something in the wall that the carapacian wanted her to see. She focused on it and noticed the same smell of cotton candy that was in the previous wall. However, this time the smell was less intense, and it was following a particular pattern. It seemed like a standard trolloid figure, but there was something familiar to it. Terezi stepped closer to the wall and licked across the blue lines, ignoring the Mayor’s scandalised movements. The blurred picture in her mind became a human wearing glasses and blue clothes with lines of wind surrounding him.

“John?!” she exclaimed, surprised.

Next to her she could sense the exaggerated movements of the carapacian, clearly as surprised as her that she was able to recognise the drawing. Did that little chess creature know John?

“It is John, right?” she asked again. “The stupid buffoon that wears blue clothes with a ridiculous large hood and that can use wind powers? How can you possibly know him?”

The carapacian made an annoyed noise, kicked the ground a couple of times, and punched her weakly on her strut stick. She barely felt it, but she understood the message loud and clear: the Mayor liked John and was not happy with her insulting him.

“Ok, ok, sorry,” she apologized with a smile. “He is your friend, and you don’t like it when I call him a buffoon, even if he is one.”

The Mayor made more annoyed sounds and the smell of oil intensified for a moment. Terezi laughed and apologised again. Even when she really thought of John in those terms and she would never apologize to the human for calling him for what he was. Well, what John didn’t know, he couldn’t use to mock her.

“Hey, Mayor, I have a surprise for you,” she said when the carapacian calmed down a bit. “I found a nice block that can be your own if you want. Remember that I told you that this is my private section?”

The little creature nodded with their thinkpan in a gesture so clear that Terezi noticed it without having to focus too much on his smell. 

“So, a few nights ago I found this big, empty block with a lot of space and cupboards with a lot of hydration cylinders. I know how much you like them,” she smiled at the clear excitement in the Mayors movements. “Do you want to check it out with me? If you don’t like it, you can keep staying here until we find a nicer place.”

The Mayor looked around to the walls and the small corner where they usually slept in a pile of dragon pushies. It was clearly reluctant to leave the block, but in the end they nodded. At that, Terezi collected their things, captchalogging empty hydration cylinders, a ruler, and some chalks that she had given to the Mayor a few weeks ago, when she realised that they both enjoyed drawing. And eating chalks of specific colours. Then, she offered her prong to the carapacian and the Mayor took it without a second thought.

She guided her friend outside of her section and towards the Signs Block, that was how they had decided to call the block with the twelve transportalizers to the private areas. From there, they step together on the transportalizer to what was originally Eridan’s section. They appeared in a long hallway with the faint scent of burned candles. Lalonde had been alchemizing a million of them and distributing them around the meteor as a temporary source of light. Not that the trolls needed them, but apparently the humans couldn’t see anything without light. Those candles were really cheap to alchemise so nobody had had any problem with it. The carapacian was probably scared of the new environment then, because they were holding her prong with greater strength than usual, and they were almost hiding behind her. Aw, this little thing was too cute for their own good!

“This used to be Eridan’s section,” she explained, trying to calm her companion, and beginning to walk again. “He was a nasty troll: arrogant, pretentious, insecure, narcissistic and, ultimately, dangerous. Like most of his caste, actually.”

Terezi was not a fan of categorizing trolls depending on their blood colour, but she had never met a sea dweller that did not fit their caste description. Feferi had been nice, but she was an actual heiress and those were really few in number. Also, the Condense was also fuchsia-blooded and she was the worst of all trolls ever existed. Feferi was probably an exception. Terezi had known Eridan for sweeps thanks to FLARP campaigns where he had rivalled against Vriska, who usually played as her teammate. The blue-blooded girl had always found it extremely funny to annoy Eridan, but Terezi had never liked it or him. She had not been really surprised when Eridan had finally turned against them, nor had she been sad for his death.

“He is gone now, though, don’t worry,” added Terezi. “He messed up with the wrong trolls and ended up culled for his crimes. He can’t hurt anyone else now.”

They passed along several doors that Terezi knew led to empty blocks or deeper into the meteor. For now, those were blocked with big, heavy machines until they were properly explored and mapped. Around the corner, however, was the large block with the alchemiters that had been converted into the _'_ _nerds’_ office. It was near the block she had chosen for the Mayor, as she believed that it would be safer for the little carapacian to be close to an area that was frequently visited. Only in case that something happened. She could already hear voices in that block.

“Mayor, we are going to stop for a moment in the alchemiter block, ok?” she asked her companion. “We will need something for you to sleep on and it will also be a good idea if you meet your future neighbours.”

The carapacian’s smell turned a bit acidic and Terezi supposed that the little creature was a bit scared and anxious to meet more trolls. Taking into consideration the poor state they had been in when they first appeared in the meteor, Terezi couldn’t blame them.

“It will be fine, they are friends, don’t worry,” she tried to calm them, stopping for a moment, just before the door. “I will be with you so I’m not going to let anything or anyone hurt you.”

The Mayor’s body was restless, moving their weight from one strut pod to the other. Terezi waited patiently until they seemed to calm down a bit, hiding behind her strut sticks again, but peeking curiously from there. The acidic smell had almost disappeared, so she took it as a good sign and opened the door.

The block was pretty big but the alchemiters and other related machines were taking a large portion of it, making it seem smaller. Terezi had been in this block so many times before that she didn’t even need to focus on her senses to know it’s layout, she already had a clear mental map of it. To the right, against the far wall, were the four big alchemiters, sitting side by side and taking all the space from wall to wall. In the wall in front of them rested a Punch Designix and a Totem Lathe, with some space between them but relatively close to each other and to the alchemiters. Next to the Punch Designix there was a small desk and chair where Lalonde usually sat to work. She was normally busy making a detailed list of known punch codes and alchemized combinations, and trying to predict possible additional results. Next to the door was Sollux’s area, with a large desk full of computers and computer’s parts. In the centre of the block there was a large table with random stuff and a couple of extra chairs. In general, all the furniture was very basic and standard, but she was sure that Lalonde would start adding extra luxurious furniture as soon as she got the adequate punch codes. At the moment there were three occupants in the block: Lalonde, Sollux and, surprisingly, Dave.

“Rose, Rose, hear me out,” was saying Dave at that moment. “What if we use our God Tier clothes and mix them with a chair or a book or something like that? We could make a God Chair that flies! Or maybe a regular chair that is extremely comfortable.”

“Dave, as I already explained it to you a hundred of times before, I need the punch code of your clothes then,” replied Lalonde, from her seat at the big table. “Have you tried to captchalogue your God Tier clothes? Because I tried and couldn’t.”

“Well, I have not tried yet, but I don’t have other clothes so it’s not like I had any choice,” answered the other human. “They are always warm, and this place is too fucking cold!” he complained. “Also, I don’t think this meteor is ready for a naked Strider, Rose. Too much naked coolness to be contained in this rock. It would explode and then we would be lost in paradox space. Like the movie but without cool robots.”

Oh, Dave was rambling one of his cute monologues. Lalonde was mostly ignoring him and Sollux had his panphones on and was doing something under the desk, so he was probably not listening to him, either. Terezi reclined against the door frame with a huge smile and prepared herself to enjoy the human’s embarrassment when he realised he had an additional audience that was actually paying attention. She could already feel the delight of the future smell of sweet cherry red blood.

“But, even then, I would still be naked. Naked in Paradox Space, that should be a movie title or something. Well, the point is that all the Horrorterrors would eventually notice it and explode from embarrassment, like anime girls,” the human was still saying, moving his prongs in broad gestures to emphasise. “You know which ones I mean, those cartoon girls that are always wearing extra short high school uniforms and screaming _’_ _Kawai!’_ with their hands hiding their red faces. The Horrorterrors would begin kawaiing and everything would explode, Rose, is that what you want?”

“Can you fucking shut up, human?!” exclaimed Sollux. “I have my music at maximum volume and I still feel my sponge melt with the pile of absurdity you are saying!”

“I don’t know, it sounded deliciously depraved to me,” decided to add Terezi, finally letting the others notice her presence. “But I agree, it would be too much naked coolness for this multiverse, CoolKid.”

As predicted, Dave’s smell changed into the sweet, sweet smell of cherry blood. His face was probably completely red by now, shame he wouldn’t let her lick it. His smell also had a bit of spice in it, the distinct smell of sweat, and an undertone of something similar to bileslaw but not quite it, which was new. She definitely needed to categorize the human’s scents; it was really hard to read them otherwise.

“Oh, hi Terezi,” said Lalonde with an amused tone of voice. “I have been hoping to see you soon.”

“Yeah, sup,” added Dave with a higher tone than usual.

“Hm,” muttered Sollux without getting up from under the table where he was working on something.

Terezi’s smile grew even bigger. Dave was clearly embarrassed that Terezi had heard him rambling about being naked, and Lalonde seemed as amused as her by that fact. She licked her lips, she was sure that if she were to lick Dave’s face at that moment, he would taste deliciously sweet. She was going to tell a stupid joke to further embarrass him when she felt something tug weakly at her pants. Right, the Mayor was there too. Maybe it would be better to embarrass Dave later, far away from the innocent presence of the carapacian.

“You wanted to see me, Lalonde?” asked Terezi, confused. “Why?”

“To remind you to show me where that _‘bookhive’_ is,” explained the human. “I thought you might have forgotten when you didn’t mention it again for a while. I’m also assuming that _‘bookhive’_ is the alternian word for _‘library’._

Terezi facepalmed. She had forgotten it, again. That had been when? A couple of nights ago? Wow, she was really out of her league if she kept forgetting stuff like this. Behind her, she felt the Mayor move, probably peeking to see who was talking.

“My, my, who is this, Terezi?” asked Lalonde, clearly referring to the little creature, “Could it be our dignified guest?” 

“Oh! It’s the Mayor!” exclaimed Dave. “Cool!”

And with that, the smell of cherry red moved close to them. Judging for the lack of steps, Terezi assumed that Dave was flying towards them. If there was something she didn’t envy the God Tiered players for, it was precisely that. She didn’t need or wanted the ability to fly, thanks. It was a lot better to keep her strut pods on the ground, where she could actually hear her own steps and use the sound to get an idea of her surroundings. Conditional immortality, on the other prong, sounded really nice.

“Hello there, dude,” she heard Dave say, probably to the Mayor. “I’m Dave, it’s really cool to finally meet you!”

The carapacian’s smell turned acidic again for a moment but it quickly went back to normal and Terezi felt them release her pants. The Mayor had clearly decided that Dave was a cool guy, too. She always knew they had good taste. She walked a step away from the carapacian, slowly, worried that they might get anxious again, but Dave seemed to be a good distraction. She heard steps and she turned to the smell of cantaloupe, cherry red blood and the distinctive smell of tree leaves. In particular, the smell of the trees in her old forest, just before the third autumn. Gods, she missed her old hive.

“Hi Mayor, my name is Rose Lalonde,” said the human girl. “It’s an absolute pleasure to meet you.”

The black carapacian looked at each human for a few moments before they began moving their arms excitedly. It was clear that they were trying to communicate something, but Terezi had no idea of what it could be. However, she had never seen the little thing so emotional.

“Wait, really? You have seen us before? And you know John?” asked Dave. “How? Where did you meet him?”

Wait a moment, was Dave actually understanding what the Mayor was saying? Terezi had tried for more than a perigee without getting anything more than basic gestures! How could he understand it so quickly? That was, that was soooo cool!

“Oh! I see,” was saying Lalonde then. “So, you met him briefly in the battlefield of Skaia, flew around in his car, and separated to accomplish a mission he gave you. Then, years after that, you could see him and us through a screen inside some weird runes, is that correct? I think that means that you were John’s exile for a while.”

“Wait! Can you both really understand what they are saying?” interrupted Terezi. “How? There are no sounds at all!”

“What do you mean, how?” asked Dave, confused. “I can hear him as clearly as I hear you.”

That made no sense. The Mayor had not made a sound since they had entered the block, they had been speechless since waking up more than a perigee ago! That was unfair, cool, but soooo unfair.

“I haven’t heard anything, either” she heard Sollux say. “They are just gesturing, but no voice.”

She turned to the other troll; he had lowered his panphones until they were resting on his spine lump. Mr. Appleberry Blast was still sitting on the floor, he had apparently interrupted whatever he was doing to pay attention to the conversation.

“I can hear it too, but it’s a bit strange,” commented Lalonde. “I can’t exactly hear any words, but at the same time I clearly understand what they are saying as easily as if they were talking aloud. Maybe this is another angle of the Gift of Gab badge?”

“Oh fuck, is that thing actually useful?” complained Dave. “I thought it was a stupid thing, like an inside job of the creators of the game. Wait, who actually created Sburb?”

“I have no remote idea of what kind of creature or omnipotent entity would be able to create Sburb, Dave,” answered Lalonde, only half seriously. “But, yes, I was talking about that ability. Remember that is allowing us to understand and speak Alternian without even noticing we are doing it,” elaborated the human. “It would not be so forfeit to consider that it is also allowing us to understand the Mayor’s non-verbal language. In comparison to others, it is a relatively basic language.”

Okay, that made sense. It was absurd and egocentric to assume that the carapacians didn’t have their own language. They had seemed to have proper civilisations during the game, a bit primitive, but civilisations anyway. It had been clear that they had the ability to write and read, they even had their own social hierarchy with laws and appropriate law enforcement officials. And the agents had been able to communicate to a certain level. Or at least their Jack had communicated with Karkat at some point, Terezi had actually never heard the agent talk. 

“That’s great!” she exclaimed. “Then, the Mayor can explain to you what they would need for their new respiteblock!”

“Oh, are you moving to your own room, dude?” asked Dave. “That’s rad! Let me help you! We will prepare the coolest room that has ever existed! Strider-approved, even.”

“That’s so cool, CoolKid!” agreed Terezi. “Let’s put a lot of cherry candy red on it too!”

That was how a few hours later Terezi, Dave and the Mayor were decorating the carapacian’s new block. They had added a comfortable pile made of red pillows on one corner for the carapacian to sleep, and put all the Mayor’s things near it. After that, the little creature had not wasted any more time and took out all the hydration and nutrition cylinders stored in several cupboards around the block and distributed them on the floor. It was then when Terezi gave them her gift: a full new pack of Crayon’s chalks. Everyone had been happy with it and rushed to use them. Even Dave had decided to participate and was now drawing a weird troloid figure on one of the walls. Terezi was on the floor with the Mayor, designing a city that the carapacian apparently had named Can Town and erected himself as its mayor. That was fine with Terezi, she could take care of the law-enforcement part of this new city. Can Town was going to be the greatest city ever!

* * *

“Okay, everyone,” called Lalonde. “We are going to get into the next dream bubble in a few minutes, does everybody know what to do?”

“Yeah Rose,” said Dave with a resigned tone. “We have been over it a hundred times already.”

Terezi ignored them and kept eating her red chalk. They had all been in the common block for hours now, waiting to enter a new dream bubble that Lalonde had foresaw that would happen _‘at any moment now’_ , as the human had kept saying for the last hour. She was soooo bored, really. She sniffed around, taking notes of everyone’s position, and perfecting her mental map of her surroundings.

The block they had designated as their common block was one of the biggest ones not in anyone’s private area. At first, it had been suggested to use the computer’s block as a common space, but Sollux had taken a single step in it, saw the pile of horns, and had a rage fit. He had kicked and thrown every one of the horns in all kinds of directions. When there were no more horns nearby, he began to do the same with the chairs and tables in a chaotic and erratic fashion until Karkat and Kanaya stopped him. It had actually been pure luck that he still didn’t have his psionics back, if not, it could have been a really dangerous situation. As such, the block ended completely messed up, with only some of the computers intact. They decided, then, to block the transportalizer and never, ever, let Sollux put a strud pod inside again.

This new common area was actually a lot better, in Terezi’s opinion. It was in a completely separate section than their private areas, which was already the best idea ever. To get there they needed to use the third transportalizer in the cross hall, go downstairs a couple of floors, and then use another platform that was right at the bottom. That transportalizer led directly here and was the only one, as far as they knew. This block had apparently been kind of a cloning lab, with huge glass cylinders full of chess pieces in the centre and several smaller ones around it with carapacians half formed. However, as everything in the meteor, the machines were completely dead now, and those poor bastards would never hatch. It had been quick work removing the small glass containers, but the big ones in the centre were too big and heavy to be captchalogued, so they were still there. Terezi didn’t know what had happened with the dead carapacians, but she had a strong suspicion that they had been thrown out of the meteor. She hoped that Jack had crashed into them, that would have been hilarious.

Using the few punch codes they had, Lalonde alchemised a large table with eight chairs and added her candles everywhere around the block. Apparently, Kanaya had decided to participate in decorating and added large pieces of cloth on the walls, providing a strange but pleasant combination of smells to the, otherwise, boring block. Even with all that, the block was still mostly empty as a result of its large size. Terezi was really looking forward to getting new furniture and other random stuff, maybe she could even convince the others to alchemise one of the trees of her old forest. The block was certainly big enough, and it would look so nice there in the centre. Maybe when Sollux finally recovered his psionics he would agree to take away the big chess cylinders and put the tree in there, right in the middle of the block. It would be the perfect spot.

“I will refresh your memory then, Dave,” insisted Lalonde. “As we discovered in our last bubble incursion, it doesn’t matter if we move around inside the bubble because we would not be moving at all in real life. When we appear back in the meteor, we will still be in the same place where we began.”

That had been a boring experiment that had consisted in only some of them moving a few steps away from the others and waiting there until they eventually left the dream bubble. Once back in the meteor, they had appeared in their previous position, instantly. That had been boring but also worth it. It was nice to know that they could move around in the bubbles without concern of falling off the meteor. Terezi had been itching for some change of scenario and it had been terrible to be back in Alternia last time and not being allowed to explore. Even if it was all fake.

“However, we discovered that any physical damage to our bodies or things we bring with us into the bubble will remain once back in the meteor,” kept lecturing the Seer of Light. “So, everyone be careful, please. No recklessly fighting, and especially no dying. Leave it for when you are actually dreaming.”

“Except for those of us who are immortal,” intervened Vriska with a huge smile from the seat in front of her. “Not my fault others are so lame.”

“Conditional immortality, remember?” elaborated Terezi with a large, sinister smile. “You can still have a Just death, so I would be very careful if I were you.” 

Vriska’s scent became acidic and stronger for a moment, before going down again, even lower than how it was initially. That was weird, restraining herself was not exactly Vriska’s speciality but she had been doing a lot of it lately. Since their last argument, to be exact. That had been almost two perigees ago now, and spidertroll was still avoiding Terezi. It had been nice in the beginning to have some time and space for herself, but it was getting annoying. It hadn’t been such a big fight, either, they had had worse ones. A lot worse. The _‘trying to kill each other’_ level of worse.

“I’m not going to test it, myself,” shrugged Dave. “There have been too many dead Daves already. Paradox space is probably full of them.”

“I agree,” smiled Terezi, turning to the Knight of Time. “Dead Daves are the enemy, after all.”

“That never stopped being true,” agreed the human, with clear amusement in his voice. “Truest true of all truths ever to exist in paradox space.”

“Oh, my fucking gooooods!!” yelled Karkat, getting his thinkpan out of his book for the first time in hours. “Could you two be more embarrassing?! If you have not noticed yet, you are not in your own little, private, disgusting world! Everyone can hear you flirting worse than the slut in _‘When a lowblood rust young troll falls in flush romance with a highblood sea dweller and a midblood cerulean, flirting with both of them independently while simultaneously hiding the existence of the other. Includes shameless flush-flirting, trust betrayal, high-low blooded relationships and eventual murder of an important character’_. I am actually wondering now if you are doing it on purpose. Are you actually actively trying to make everyone uncomfortable?”

Terezi sighed, Karkat had been taking too long without exaggerating a simple conversation until it was totally out of context. Him and his quadrant-obsessed sponge were always classifying every minimal gesture into one quadrant or another. He seemed to be convinced that he was a master in the topic, and that for that reason he had the right to meddle with everyone’s personal lives. Unless he was the one in a quadrant-related situation. Then, he was apparently incapable of keeping his feelings straight. 

“Oi, Sollux, back me up here,” Karkat kept saying. “I know you don’t like the humans.”

“Naaa, I’m busy,” refused the other troll, without taking his weirdly normal smelling lookstubs from the computer pieces he was working on. “And it’s a lot funnier to see you losing your shit over it.”

“Well, fuck you too, Captor!” yelled Karkat. “I don’t know why I even try! You are the worst best hatefriend to ever exist!”

Wow, there he goes again. Black-flirting with Captor, moments after accusing Terezi of flush-flirting with Dave. And just a few perigees earlier he had been flirting with HER! What a hypocrite!

“Thanks,” answered Sollux, probably with his large, nasty smile. “I try my best, I’m happy you recognize my efforts.”

“Aaaargh!” shrieked Karkat again.

After that there was the sound of some slapping, kicking, and even someone falling to the floor. Terezi was so glad she was blind in moments like this. From the frustrated growl coming from Vriska’s zone, she knew the blue-blooded girl was wishing she could say the same.

“Boys, if you do not stop displaying such a disgraceful behaviour, I would feel obliged to separate you myself,” interrupted the gentle voice of Kanaya, always ready to mediate. “It would be humiliating for everyone so, please, do not coerce me into taking such radical measures.”

That was the end of the short brawl, clearly the idea of Kanaya turning ash on them was too embarrassing for them. Terezi was actually glad for it, she would have felt uncomfortable with that, too.

“Okay, now that everyone has calmed down, I will continue,” said Lalonde, as if nothing had happened. “Last time we also verified that we can captchalogue objects from the dream bubble and they stay in the cards when we are out, but then they turn into ghost images instead of actual objects. For this reason, and taking into consideration that a number of ghosts actually live in those bubbles, I recommend we restrain ourselves from stealing their stuff.”

Yeah, that could get uncomfortable if they ever met the same ghosts again, or their friends. In addition to the fact that stealing was unlawful and everyone knew Terezi’s stand on people breaking the law. 

“My camera worked, though,” commented Dave. “We only need the codes, right? So instead of taking their shit we can simply take pictures.”

“Or we could also contemplate the approach to try to communicate with our ghostly alternative selves and inquire politely if we can take note of their punch codes,” added Kanaya. “I am sure that if we clarify our present circumstances, they would be amenable to assist us.”

“Both of those are good suggestions,” agreed Lalonde.

“In fact, I had already anticipated this situation and took care of it,” interrupted Vriska. “I copied the code of Strider’s stupid camera and made a few replicas.”

While saying that, Vriska decaptchalogued three Captcharoid cameras and put them on the table. Terezi hurried to take one and lick its side. Delicious and cool. Coolicious!

“Wait, when did you copy the code?” asked Dave. “You never asked for my camera!”

“You shouldn’t take naps in the common area where everyone can steal your things, Strider,” shrugged Vriska with a malicious tone.

“I did not!” protested the human. “I was doing my things when I suddenly fell asleep, I don’t even know how it happened!”

Nobody said anything for a few moments. Apparently, the reason for Dave's spontaneous nap was clear for everyone but the victim. What a shame, that was totally uncool. Even the greatest fell sometimes. Karkat was the first one to burst out laughing.

“Fuck, you are so stupid Strider!” he exclaimed between bursts of laughing. “SHE made you sleep, you primitive and weak creature!”

“Whaaaat?!” exclaimed Dave. “Since when can you do that?!”

“Mind-controlling other people, you mean? Or stealing?” asked Vriska with a mocking tone. “Since I was a grub. In both cases.”

“I thought your telekinetic abilities only worked with those of your own species?” questioned Lalonde.

“Not really, I could control carapacians and agents easily enough,” answered the blue-blooded troll. “However, with your species I can only seem to be able to put you to sleep. For now, at least.”

“That is interesting, maybe there is an important biological difference between our species, or at least our brains,” pondered the human girl.

Terezi blinked at that, she had never thought about the humans having different minds than the trolls. She almost wished she could go inside their minds and see the differences. Not that her useless powers worked like that, anyway.

“Regardless of how interesting this conversation is, I believe we should postpone the biology lecture for another moment,” commented Kanaya. “I understand that we have other matters to contemplate regarding our near future.”

Of course Kanaya would find a diversion when someone was talking about biology, anatomy or physical differences between trolls and humans. You would never say it based on her literature preferences, but that girl was too shy for her own good.

“Yeah, I don’t care about biology, either” said Dave, now with his own Captcharoid camera in his hands. “I want to make it clear that I’m not happy that you went through my stuff without permission, spidertroll, but you actually didn’t steal anything, so I guess we are cool.”

“Don’t call me that, Strider,” protested Vriska. “I’m Serket for you.”

“Yeah, whatever, I don’t care,” shrugged the human, earning back the cool points he had lost with his previous mistake.

“As we now have four cameras, I suggest that, once we are in the bubble, we separate in groups of two or three each,” proposed Lalonde. “That way we would explore more efficiently and be able to take a large variety of codes.”

Everyone agreed and some of them took a camera. Karkat loudly refused to touch that _‘pile of Strider-based stupidity, absurdity and incompetence in a shape that lightly resembled an actual object’_ , which of course made Sollux take one and proceed to use it immediately, only to make him fume. She had already taken one and Vriska and Lalonde took the rest.

“So, when are we actually going to get there?” asked Terezi, for the third time.

“We should enter the bubble at any…” began Lalonde.

At that exact moment, the huge, soap smelling wall of a bubble appeared from the nearest wall and went through them in seconds.

“…moment now.” finished Lalonde, with a satisfied tone of voice.

Terezi was going to say something to her, sure that the human had been actually trying to be dramatic, when a familiar smell came to her. Wood, grass, lavender, and a whole set of other scents that she had had engraved in her mind since she was a wriggler. She got up from the ground and took a moment to listen to the sound of the wind between the trees, the songs of talonscreechers and the running steps of small nut creatures. She was in a forest, in HER forest.

“This is…” she heard Karkat saying, softly.

“Home!” exclaimed Terezi, extremely happy. “This is my forest!”

“Oh,” muttered Lalonde. “It’s quite lovely, Terezi. I also lived near a forest myself but not one that had blue trees with purple leaves.”

“You should see it during the third autumn, it’s really lovely then!” she insisted, glad to be able to share her forest with someone else.

“I do not intend to disrupt such a special moment, Terezi, but I believe we should split up our group and begin our exploration before our meteor reaches the end of the bubble,” said Kanaya. “I recommend that those of us devoid of a picture-capturing device go with someone that has one, and we all part in separate directions. I presume you would visit your hive, Terezi?”

“Yeah!” agreed Terezi. “I have a lot of stuff that I want to get back!”

“Terezi, would you mind if I go with you?” asked Karkat in a soft voice.

Terezi turned towards him, surprised. The short troll always smelled like the dirt pavement of his ever-present sweater and a bit of cherry red blood, perceptible even through his tough skin. However, now she could detect a sniff of anxiety and nervousness also coming from him. That was strange.

“Sure, if you want to,” answered her, confused. “But why? You have been avoiding me for weeks, Karkat.”

“Yeah, I know,” answered him, clearly a bit ashamed of his behaviour. “I’m truly sorry for that. I was hoping we could talk in private if it’s fine with you?”

Karkat was being polite. He was being careful and polite with his words instead of screaming and being blunt as usual. This was serious then. Terezi felt her digestion bladder jump with nerves. They never actually dated, in any quadrant, but for a while it had seemed that their friendship was becoming something more. Terezi had thought about becoming Karkat’s matesprit then, and a part of her was still hoping for an opportunity, in spite of Karkat’s vacillating tendencies. However, she didn’t know if it was a good idea. There was Dave now, and Sollux on Karkat’s side. She knew that those two were mostly toying with a black romance but, knowing Karkat, she would not be surprised if he flipped red on him, too. There was also the warning from her future-self against dating, she really didn’t want to mess everything up again.

“I guess it’s fine,” she replied finally. “I’m not sure if it’s a good idea, though.”

Karkat was going to reply something, probably trying to convince her to give him another opportunity, when Vriska began yelling.

“Where the fuck are you going, Captor?!” she screamed. “Nobody goes alone, remember? Come back here immediately!”

“Fuck off!” yelled back Sollux without stopping for a second. “I don’t care about your stupid rules, spidertroll! I don’t need a grubsitter!”

“I said to come back here!!” repeated Vriska, stomping after him. “Don’t make me mind-control you!”

“Get the fuck away from me, psycho!”

Oh, that was going to end badly for everyone but especially for those two. In normal circumstances, she would not worry about it. Sollux was more than capable of taking care of himself. But the troll still didn’t have his psionics back, and that made him extremely weak and vulnerable. He also tended to be reckless, and even bordering suicidal sometimes. Combining that with Vriska’s angry issues and the piles and piles of bad history between them, it was the perfect recipe for disaster. She checked around and realised that Lalonde and Kanaya had already left, probably together. She focused back on Karkat and noticed that the troll was moving his body weight anxiously from one strut stick to the other. It was clear that he had realised the dangerous situation, too, and was simmering inside with his wish to go and make sure that the two trolls didn’t kill each other. The fact that he was still here restraining himself for Terezi’s sake was actually quite adorable.

“Go with them,” she told him. “I know you want to, and I would prefer if nobody breaks our first rule yet.”

“But…” protested Karkat. “I really want to talk with you.”

“It’s fine, Karkat,” she insisted, quite resigned at this point to being relegated to second place. “We will talk when we are back in the meteor, I promise.”

Her friend still seemed to be doubting, but in the end he nodded and, after thanking her in a quiet voice, he ran after Vriska and Sollux.

“Well, that was uncool of him,” she heard someone say from behind the nearest tree. “Leaving you hanging like this.”

“It’s okay, I’m used to it,” shrugged her, turning back towards Dave. “Were you waiting for me, CoolKid?”

“Me? Not really, just enjoying the view,” replied the human.

“Hehehe,” she laughed. “As cool as ever, then.”

Terezi smiled, it was actually sweet of Dave to treat her like this. Maybe this visit would not be as lonely as she thought. She focused on the smells and sounds of the forest and tried to orientate herself. Then, she began walking in the direction of her old hive.

“Come on CoolKid!” she called him. “I will show you my hive!”

They spend the next hour, or at least what it felt like an hour, walking through the forest. She showed him the doomsday scale with the hatched egg where her lusus had slept during all Terezi’s life. She also showed him the executed Scalemates hanging from the trees, and told him anecdotes from when she was a wriggler. They laughed together about the time she got lost and had to sleep inside a tree with a family of nut creatures to avoid the scorching sun. Soon they were in front of her hive, in the biggest tree in the forest.

“This is your home?” asked the human. “I didn’t know you lived on a tree! That’s super cool, dude!”

“Wow, I’m honoured to get such a high compliment from the personification of coolness himself!” smiled Terezi, extremely happy. “Come! I want to show you my respiteblock! I have an amazing portrait of His Tyranny on my wall!”

“I hope it’s made with red chalk,” answered Dave with his usual cool face.

“It is!” she agreed. “It’s the most delicious chalk ever!”

They kept talking while they climbed to the door of her hive and went inside. Her respiteblock was on the second floor, but just in front of the entrance she had her rumpusblock with the comfiest loungeplank in the whole world. She definitely wanted to take a picture of it, she wanted to take pictures of everything. She would alchemize her full hive if she could. 

Terezi was so excited to be back in her hive that she didn’t realise it was already occupied until she heard an unmistakable grunt coming from the loungeplank. A deeper growl reverberated in response and a torrent of odours rushed towards her, finally making her realise who was in her hive and what exactly were those two doing. Pheromones were, after all, some of the strongest scents ever. 

“What the fuck?” she heard Dave muttering next to her while she was too shocked to move. “Karkat?”

There was a shriek that Terezi clearly recognised as hers and the sound of something falling to the floor before someone let go a threatening roar.

“WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!!” yelled someone with Karkat’s voice. “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU?!! AND HOW THE FUCKING FUCK DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?”

Yeah, moment to leave. Terezi grabbed Dave’s clothes and began retreating towards the door, pulling the human with her.

“We are sorry to interrupt you,” she muttered with a shaky voice. “We are leaving right now!”

And with that, she ran out of the block, with Dave’s clothes still on her grab. Something clashed with a wall and other-Karkat was still screaming threats with the full capacity of his bellowsacs. Dave and her jumped straight to the ground and ran into the forest, not stopping until they ran out of breath. She heard Dave falling to the ground next to her and she realised that she was still holding his clothes. She let them go.

“Fuuuuck! I just saw a naked Karkat,” complained the human into the ground. “I need to take my eyes out now.”

“If you do that, the last thing you would have ever seen would be Karkat’s nudity,” answered Terezi between short intakes of air. “It will haunt you for the rest of your life, believe me, I would know.”

“Fuuuuuuuuck!” whimpered Dave again. "Can we not talk about it like, ever again?"

"Sure CoolKid," shrugged Terezi.

Dave seemed to be really traumatized by the experience and Terezi could not blame him. She was shocked too, and she had the advantage of her visual defect, for which she was extremely grateful. Listening and smelling those two during a clearly red pail had been overwhelming enough. She began laughing, things like that only happened in paradox space. 

“What's so funny?” asked Dave, still mopping.

“I just walked into myself having sex with my almost ex-matesprit,” she laughed. “Talk about auto-bulgeblocking.”

To that, Dave began laughing too, and soon both of them were on the ground rolling around in uncontrollable laughter.

“Okay, that was actually funny,” said the human when his laugh calmed down a bit. “The auto-cockblocking thing I mean. What were the odds of something like that ever happening?

“Only in paradox space,” replied Terezi, still smiling.

“Fuck, I want a T-shirt with that sentence!” exclaimed Dave.

After that, they rested in silence for a bit. It was oddly relaxing, being there with Dave without saying anything after what they had just witnessed. The human had actually seen Terezi’s naked body and there she was, nonchalant about it. It was amazing how much she didn’t care, actually.

“So, is he it, for real?” she heard the Knight ask.

“Is he what?” she asked, confused.

“The thing you said,” insisted Dave. “Your ex-mateship.”

“Matesprit,” corrected Terezi.

“Yeah, that,” repeated the human. “That’s how you trolls call a boyfriend, right? Like a proper one.”

“If _'_ _boyfriend’_ means a romantic partner then yes, it’s one of the names we use,” answered Terezi, though she was confused about what the human meant by a _‘proper one’_.

“So?” insisted Dave.

“So, what?” repeated her, having a hint of what the human was asking but wanting to see if he would actually say it aloud.

“So, is Karkat your ex-boyfriend or not?!” finally exclaimed Dave.

Terezi rose until she was sitting up on the grass and her face was higher than the human’s. He smelt like cherry red blood and embarrassment. A lot of embarrassment.

“Dave, are you actually asking me about my personal feelings?” she asked him with a huge smile. “Are you trying to lead me into a feelings jam?”

“Oh, fuck!” exclaimed him with the tone of somebody realising something important. “That’s another one of your quadrants, right?”

“Yeah, and you are sending me mixed signals here, CoolKid,” she complained, teasingly. “It makes a girl wonder.”

The smell of the human’s shame, or what she had come to associate with it, was now almost stronger than the scent of his candy red blood. Oh, he was so easy to mess up with. 

“Nops, no, nada, nein,” he protested, getting up and moving away from her. “No signals here, forget I asked, I don’t want to know.”

Terezi laughed at his reaction. Boy, it was soooo funny to mess with him. Of course she had not been serious when she insinuated that Dave was trying to act as a moirail with her. She doubted the humans were even capable of having that kind of complicated emotions. And Dave in particular seemed to have a kind of revulsion towards quadrants. Terezi didn’t understand what was so scary about them, maybe those were not considered cool?

Suddenly, Terezi caught a hint of blueberry bubble-gum smell in the air and Dave fell back to the ground, asleep. They had a visitor. She turned towards the trees, noticing that the smell was not getting stronger. Vriska was trying to make her go to her, then. She shrugged; it was not like she would be able to wake Dave up now with the other troll’s interference. She got up from the ground, took back her cane, and began walking towards the source of the smell. A few minutes later, she stopped and sat down next to her hatefriend.

“You could have said something instead of luring me here,” was the first thing Terezi said.

“I wanted to talk with you, and I didn’t want Strider there,” explained the other troll, with an uncharacteristic calm voice.

“Well, here I am,” replied Terezi. “What do you want?”

Vriska didn’t say anything for a few moments. Terezi focused her senses on her and realised that the other girl was tearing out grass in front of her with absent movements. She was not saying anything though and Terezi was quite tired of people ignoring her.

“I thought you would still be fighting with Sollux and Karkat somewhere else,” commented Terezi. “You know, avoiding me as you have been doing lately.”

“They were getting too annoying with their constant black-flirting to stay around them,” shrugged Vriska. “And you’re right, I have been avoiding you. I shouldn’t have done that.”

Wow. Coming from Vriska, that was almost an apology. Terezi had never heard the other troll apologize to anyone for anything, even when she knew she had fucked up. Especially when she knew she had fucked something up. It was just not how she was, or at least how she had forced herself to be.

“It’s okay,” answered Terezi. “I just don’t understand why you were avoiding me.”

“I actually thought you were angry with me,” explained Vriska. “I was trying to give you some time to cool down before you decided to come back to me and apologize, but you never did.”

“Apologize? For what?” asked her, beginning to get angry again.

“You know, for all that stuff you said to me last time,” elaborated the highblood girl. “That thing about me trying to take credit of you developing your senses and all that.”

Okay, now she was angry. Vriska had actually expected Terezi to apologize for defending herself when the other troll had tried to rationalise her horrible past behaviour as something done with Terezi’s best interests in mind! How dare she?!

“Then I realised that you were right all along,” continued Vriska.

Wait, what?

“You were right when you accused me of trying to insinuate that me blinding you had been a selfless act,” was saying the other girl now. “And right again later, when you stopped me before I actually got to the point of claiming that you are better now thanks to me.”

Oh. That was new. Was Vriska actually reflecting and recognising her past behaviour, for once? She had still not apologized but this looked like progress. Actual progress. Had she been thinking about it all this time? For two perigees?

“I… I realised that I do that, I do that a lot,” concluded Vriska.

“Do what, exactly?” asked Terezi, trying to persuade the other girl into going a bit further.

“That!” insisted Vriska. “That thing when I rationalise my mistakes until they stop being mistakes, or when I blame others for the things I do! Like what I did to Sollux and Aradia!”

Yeah, she certainly had a tendency to do that. Vriska had actually blamed Aradia for initiating their revenge circle, and excused her own part in it saying that she had had reasons to claim vengeance. She had gone so far as to say that it was not her fault that the rust blood could not take it and had gone and actually died. Or blaming Sollux when everyone in their group refused to talk with Vriska for a sweep, saying that the gold-blood was putting everyone against her. In truth, Sollux was the last troll to even mention Aradia’s full name or what had actually happened that night. Terezi was pretty sure that only her, Karkat and the three trolls directly implicated in that incident knew the specifics of what had happened. The rest of their friends had had a vague idea, but nothing concrete.

“You actually blamed Aradia for _‘deciding to die on you’_ for half a sweep,” added Terezi.

“She began it! She should have never sent her ghosts to haunt me!” screamed the other girl but, before Terezi could argue further, she corrected herself. “No, wait, I’m doing it again. It was my fault; I began it when I tried to kill Tavros. And I was the one killing her, even if Doc Scratch pushed me to do it.”

“Wait, Doc Scratch?!” asked Terezi, that was new. “You never told me that!”

“He didn’t make me do anything,” complained Vriska. “He just needled me and suggested the idea of taking revenge on Aradia. He didn’t even need to interfere like that time when he distracted everyone so I could make Tavros jump off a cliff. I killed her totally on my own.”

Fuck. Doc Scratch had been manipulating Vriska from the beginning in the same way that he had done with so many of them. And even with the humans. That horrid, vanilla milkshake smelling, putrefied omnipresent First Guardian had been behind everything. He had pushed Vriska into paralysing Tavros, and later again into escalating the cycle of vengeance. He might even have had a prong in Vriska’s blinding her! For a troll with such mind-controlling powers and high tendency toward violence, Vriska was scarily too susceptible to old fashion manipulation tricks.

“He manipulated you, both times. And probably more times than that, without you even realising it,” declared Terezi. “He had always been the one behind everything, manipulating everyone and everything only to accomplish his own goal.”

“Yeah, he did,” confessed Vriska. “I was too ashamed to admit it then, but I was actually grateful that you made my cue ball explode. I was too dependent on it, on his own power.”

What a mess. They had really been toys in the vanilla bastard prongs. All of them without exception in one way or another. Terezi hoped he had died already.

“You can’t do that, Vriska,” sighed Terezi. “You can’t let anyone manipulate you into killing your friends! You should not let anyone manipulate you, finish grumb.”

“I know, I know,” whispered Vriska. “It’s not like I want anyone using me like that. Sometimes I don’t even realise it, but others I just can’t stop myself, even when I know that I am being manipulated to do it.”

That was harsh. Was that an actual problem for highbloods? There was a joke in Alternia about how highblood’s problems were not real problems at all. Like, when you are rich, have a brilliant future assured without even trying, and almost nobody is trying to cull you every two nights, what was there to be afraid of? Maybe they had all been too rushed into discarding their issues as bullshit. It was common knowledge that highblood trolls were violent, irascible, irrational, and easy to fall into feral mindsets, but nobody had actually wondered if they were like that because they chose to or if it was something that happened to them without their control.

“Did you talk about these things with Kanaya, at least?” asked Terezi, fearing the answer.

“What?! No!” replied Vriska, just as Terezi had feared. “What would have been the point?! She would have meddled and bothered me nonstop for weeks!”

Terezi groaned and put her prongs over her face. That could not be happening.

“That is the point!” she yelled. “She was your moirail! Stopping you from being manipulated into genocide is exactly what a moirail does! But how could she help you if you didn’t even bother to talk to her?!”

“I… I was never a good moirail,” protested weakly her hatefriend.

Wow, that was almost pitiful. How had Kanaya put up with this kind of bullshit for so long?! And Terezi had been angry with Kanaya when she broke her moiraillegiance! She almost felt like she should apologize to the jade-blooded troll for that.

“Okay, that’s it!” she exclaimed, already exhausted just thinking of all the murder and drama that could have been avoided if Vriska had actually talked to her moirail. “You clearly can’t be left alone! You will get manipulated again by the first asshole that meets you and you will end up dooming us all! From now on, every time you have the minimal murderous or dangerous thought you check it first with me!”

“But…” tried to protest the other girl.

“No buts! This is not a suggestion, it’s an order!” repeated Terezi. “You are alive now because future-me decided to give you another chance, so you OWE ME! And I swear to all the Horrorterrors in paradox space that if you hide anything from me, try to act behind me, or even think of it, I. Will. Fucking. Legislacerate. YOU!”

Terezi stopped screaming and realised that she was out of breath. Vriska was silent, making weird noises as if she was trying to talk but just couldn’t. Terezi frowned and tried to focus on her smell, she had the same scent as always, maybe with a bit of shock and a lot of shame mixed there. That was weird, why would Vriska be shocked of anything? Maybe from seeing Terezi screaming like that? It was not her usual behaviour, true, but she had had a tiring night. A tiring sweep actually. She sighed and focused on the sounds of the forest; she had never known how much she liked her forest until she actually lost it. They stayed in silence for some time.

“So, did you take the codes of everything in your hive already?” asked Vriska in a weird tone of voice.

“As if,” sneered Terezi. “I actually went there with Dave and we walked in a ghost-Terezi and a ghost-Karkat pailing on my loungeplank.”

Yeah, that had actually happened. It was not that bad, now that she had had time to process it, only awkward because of the implications. That ghost-Karkat had not known Dave, so that probably meant that both of them had died before even hearing of the humans. They were clearly matesprits, but Terezi wondered how long had they actually been dead. Time in paradox space was weird so they could have been trapped in the dream bubble for sweeps or even centuries. Was that why they finally fell in a matespritship? Would that have happened to her and her Karkat too if they had died earlier in the game? Or was not meeting Dave the factor that had made that other Terezi finally end up in a matespritship with Karkat?

“You walked in in yourself having sex?” asked Vriska with an amused tone in her voice. “And with Karkat?!”

Terezi laughed a bit too, that had not stopped being funny yet.

“Yeah,” she confirmed. “We ran out of there so quickly that I couldn’t even get a single picture.”

That had been a shame, actually. She was so excited to get her things back, but in the end she had gotten nothing. Who knew if they would ever end up in another dream bubble with her hive in it.

“You know, I could mind-control them out of your hive,” suggested Vriska. “I will not kill them, or double kill them as they are already dead, only make them leave the hive until we are done with the codes.”

Terezi thought about it, it actually sounded like a good idea. And nothing Vriska-patented, so there was probably some hidden trick in there.

“No hurting, maiming or traumatising them, either,” added Terezi. 

“Fiiiiine, if you insist on it,” pouted her friend. “You are so boring sometimes Pyrope! But I get to embarrass Karkat a bit, right?”

Terezi smiled, she could live with it.

“Alright! Let’s do it!” she exclaimed.

“Yeaaaaah!” yelled Vriska, pulling her up with her.

Terezi led Vriska back to her hive and she stayed quiet while Vriska told her what she would make Karkat do, with her arm over Terezi’s shoulders. Yes, she could definitely live with it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ALTERNIAN DICTIONARY: most words are obtained from the troll terminology list in MS Paint Adventures Wiki with some new ones and additional context specifications. Trolls higher in the hemospectrum use some words similar to the humans (eyes, can, fridge…)  
> \- Grubgames: videogames  
> \- Bookhive: library  
> \- Thinkpan: head  
> \- Smelloscope: a telescope for smelling odours at long distance   
> \- Respiteblock: bedroom  
> \- Legislacerator: A lawyer-bounty hunter  
> \- Palmhusk: mobile phone or a tablet-type device  
> \- Trolloid: equivalent of ‘humanoid’  
> \- Bileslaw: A food likely similar to coleslaw  
> \- Strud pod: foot  
> \- Talonscreecher: an alternian bird  
> \- Nut creatures: squirrels  
> \- Grubsitter: babysitter   
> \- Rumpusblock: living room / playroom  
> \- Loungeplank: sofa, couch  
> \- Bellowsacs: lungs  
> \- Finish grumb: punctuation marks that conclude a sentence; periods  
> \- Pailing: fucking


	6. p2iioniic2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sollux's sylladex is a fan-made modus taken from the MSPA Fetch Modus Wiki, so all credit to whoever came up with the idea.  
> As always, thanks to my beta for doing a wonderful job, and to everyone that has left kudos, bookmarks, comments or subscriptions.

Lately, waking up is always a weird experience. One moment you are flying around in someone’s dream bubble, looking for your lost moirail, and the next you are resting on a pile of computer pieces in a block with boring grey walls. Well, probably grey walls. All colours had been a bit off since the last time you got resuscitated. Everything looks the same now: dull and sad. No more red and blue tones that make everything look so much alive and interesting, no more vision twofold that give an extra liveness to everything. And it’s really dark now, too. You can see fine, trolls have night-vision after all, but it’s strange. You have never before been in darkness for a single moment of your life. Your lookstubs are so wrong now that it almost makes you sick.

Hey, you are alive! No voices, no half blindness and you are still as awesome as ever!

Oh yeah, so lucky. Being alive only means that you can die again. What will it be next time? Drowning in your own blood? Starvation? Fucking overdoing it again?

You sigh and borrow further under the blanket. It’s always so fucking freezing in this meteor. You didn't have this problem when you were a ghost. You didn’t feel anything then: no cold, no hunger, no thirst, no pain. It was almost better sometimes; only a few perigees in and you are already exhausted of being cold, miserable, and having all these fucking headaches constantly.

At least you are not as hot-blooded as KK! He will freeze into a popsicle one of these days!

That would be the most ridiculous way to fail at the only reason for you to stay in this stupid rock instead of going away with AA.

It would be hilarious, though!

Right, the death of your best hatefriend and one of the few trolls that still puts up with you regularly would be the funniest thing in the world.

Your husktop illuminates with new notifications from trollian. You peek at it from your pile but don’t move an inch. Your computer is resting on the red-and-blue desk that Lalonde alchemized for you. Well, she probably didn’t make it specifically for you, but it was clear that she had your tastes in mind. The human didn’t say any of this, of course. Lalonde only said that she was trying a variety of code combinations to change things into purple. However you are not that stupid, and alchemising a desk with precisely its left half in blue and right half in red could not be anything else than deliberate.

The human girl was apparently trying to mix both colours into her favourite, but she hadn’t managed it yet. You refused to accept the desk when Lalonde tried to give it to you with an indifferent gesture, but you swiped it right into your sylladex when the human wasn’t looking. It was too amazing to let her recycle it, or worse, to take it for herself only to spite you. Now, if she asks, you can refuse having it, and she would never know the truth. There was probably some secret agenda behind her actions, some annoying way to try to prove humanity’s superiority, or some bullshit like that. You are not buying it, it’s just a desk after all, anyone could have figured up the code. The fact that it was Lalonde the one to have the idea and not you doesn’t prove shit.

You will definitely show her who is the best during your duel, when you clean the ground with her body!

Only if you get your psionics back, even KK can beat you now.

There is another notification lighting up the screen of your husktop together with a specific beeping sound and, for a moment, you can see capital grey letters in the small notification window. It’s KK, of course it’s him. You turn away from the desk and pull the blanket completely over your thinkpan. Fuck off KK! You are not leaving the warmth of your pile to pick up your computer. If you still had your psionics you would have levitated your husktop to you already, but with your powers as weak as they are now, you don’t want to risk losing control midway and destroying your only functional computer.

You have been trying to fix one of the old terminals from the Computers Block but, so far, you haven’t been successful. It isn’t a hardware or software problem, though, those you can fix easily. It’s the lack of a power source, the same as with everything electronic in the meteor. The only computers that still work are those that your group brought to the meteor, the rest stopped functioning when you moved away from The Green Sun. Or from your Skaia, you are not sure. Your beehouse mainframes could probably work because they have their own energy source. However, your bees have their own needs, like fresh air and flowers to pollinize. For now they are in stasis in your sylladex, but the moment you decaptchalogue them, they would begin to starve and die. Not the best idea.

At least this way there won’t be more mind-honey related incidents.

It’s not that bad, though! Mind-honey can also be useful sometimes!

Thinking of mind-honey. You reach into your sylladex to decaptchalogue the item you are lately keeping at the bottom of the two tree-like structures. You take a moment to appreciate the effect of your favourite two colours in your Bifurcation Modus. Even red and blue look different now. You sigh and check the contents of the small flask. You are running out of mind-honey, if things stay like this you will need to fetch more from your beehouses. How much of it have you already eaten by now?

What happened to the _'never, under any circumstance, eat the mind honey’_ rule?

Come on, it’s safe if taken in small doses! It’s supposed to enhance your psionics, and right now you need all the help you can get. Think of it as cold medicine!

You are tempted to take a few drops of honey now, but you restrain yourself. It doesn’t matter if you have done it before a dozen times, you don’t want to risk an accidental overdose and destroy the meteor by mistake. You shouldn’t be eating mind-honey at all, but you are getting desperate. You concentrate and try to reach the core of your psionics, but you only manage to scratch the surface, producing a few sparks of red-blue electricity. Even levitating a small bottle like the one in your prong requires too much concentration now, and the energy is weak and fluctuates erratically. You let go of your powers and sigh, only this minimal action has already left you exhausted.

You take another look at the viscous honey inside the jar. It was useful when you were feeding it to your lusus to make him less stupid. Also, the few times you have eaten some it incremented your psionics immensely, usually with tragic consequences. That is the reason why you decided to eat some honey at any opportunity you had, in an attempt to push your powers back. You have been careful, though, taking only small doses and always when you are alone in a dream bubble. That way, if your psionics ever go out of control, you won’t hurt anybody. And you won’t have to give stupid explanations to the others, either.

Remember what happened last time you went out of control? Or the time before that?

It’s not going to happen again; you are being really careful now. You have it totally under control!

Not that it has made any difference anyway, there hasn’t been a pixel of improvement in your powers. You are not sure if eating mind-honey has helped or not, but the only change is that your headaches have been getting worse lately. Not like you haven’t suffered from headaches before, it has been a constant for all your life after all, but it feels different now.

In the past, your headaches came when the voices in your thinkpan were too loud or too numerous, all of them screaming inside your sponge at the same time. However, now your thinkpan hurts as if something is constricting your sponge. Pushing and pushing in a constant claustrophobic sensation that even makes you dizzy sometimes. And there are still no other voices than your own inside your pan, which is weird. This time your headaches might not be as horrible as they used to be, true, but the sensation is always there, and it’s making you go nuts. More than usual.

Not that it would make a big difference, you have always been crazy.

All geniuses are considered crazy by those with inferior intellect!

Your husktop begins making the notification sound again, but this time it stays, as if someone is trolling you nonstop. You don’t have to think too hard to know who that could be. There is only one troll in the two dead universes as annoying as him. You hide completely under your blanket and cover your hear ducts with your prongs, waiting for KK to get bored and stop trolling you. No matter how much you try, though, you can still hear the annoying noise, bouncing inside your nugbone and aggravating your headache.

Finally, a couple of minutes later, you gave up and get out of the blanket and down the pile, decided to fucking kill KK. You trip in a loose cable on the floor, try to regain your balance with erratic movements of your arms, hit your small stump on the desk’s strut stick, and end up sprawled on the floor in front of your chair. The beeping continues.

Fuuuuuuuck!!! You hate not having your psionics! You hate not being able to fly and being forced to walk like a stupid troll! And you fucking HATE KK!! You are going to KILL HIM!!

You don’t really want to kill him, though. Not for real.

Still from where you fell on the floor, you reach up with your prongs and touch around blindly until you find the keyboard. Keying in a Fn+F8 command, your husktop finally shuts up. You are probably still getting the window notifications on your screen but at least it’s quiet now. Now that the noise is gone, you take a few extra moments to massage your hurting stump and think about all the bad decisions you ever took in your life.

Finally, you get up from the ground and sit in your chair. As expected, KK is still texting you. You are tempted to ignore him, but in the end your anger decides for you. You open his conversation in trollian.

carcinoGeneticist [CG] began trolling twinArmageddons [TA] at 9:53

CG: OI BULGESAC! CHECK VRISKA’S MEMO ALREADY, SHE IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!

CG: SERIOUSLY, SPIDERTROLL IS GETTING REALLY ANNOYED AND IS PISSING ME OFF.

CG: MORE THAN USUAL I MEAN.

carcinoGeneticist [CG] stopped trolling twinArmageddons [TA] at 9:56

carcinoGeneticist [CG] began trolling twinArmageddons [TA] at 10:30

CG: WHAT THE FUCK, CAPTOR? WHERE ARE YOU?

CG: ARE YOU SERIOUS? YOU ARE NOT GETTING AWAY SO EASILY, IF I HAVE TO STAY HERE IN THIS FUCKING STUPID *MEETING* LISTENING TO BITCHTROLL MONOLOGUING FOR HOURS, YOU WILL HAVE TO SUFFER IT TOO!!

CG: WAIT

CG: 8ITCHTROLL, NOW, PERFECTION

CG: ARE YOU STILL FUCKING ASLEEP?! HOW COULD YOU SLEEP THROUGH ALL THAT INCESSANT DEBATE IN THE MEMO GROUP? I LITERALLY WAKE UP TO LALONDE AND SPIDERTROLL ARGUING WITH THE BACKGROUND SOUNDS OF STRIDER AND TEREZI EXCHANGING STUPID PICTURES.

CG: KANAYA IS THE ONLY SANE TROLL IN THIS METEOR. WE DON’T DESERVE HER.

CG: DID YOU SOMEHOW SILENCED THE MEMO’S NOTIFICATIONS AND DIDN’T TELL ME HOW TO DO IT?!

CG: BECAUSE THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN A SERIOUS BETRAYAL, CAPTOR! INTENTIONALLY ABANDONING YOUR FRIEND TO ETERNAL SUFFERING LIKE THIS IS A CULLABLE FELONY!! I’M SURE TEREZI WILL AGREE WITH ME ON THIS!

CG: STILL SLEEPING, BULGESUCKER?! ARE YOU COMFORTABLE IN YOUR PILE OF BROKEN HARDWARE FOR WIGGLERS WHILE THE REST OF US UNDERGO A TORTUOUS AND SLOWLY DEATH?!

CG: YOU ARE NOT FUCKING AVOIDING THIS! DON’T MAKE ME TROLL YOU SERIOUSLY, CAPTOR! I WILL DO IT IF I HAVE TO! YOU KNOW I WILL!

CG: SEEMS THAT YOU ARE STILL IGNORING THE ORDERS OF YOUR MAGNANIMOUS AND BLOODTHIRSTY LEADER. WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, DRONE-SNACK?

CG: CAPTOR, IF YOU DON’T MOVE YOUR PUTRID AND REPUGNANT BODY TO THE FUCKING *WAR BLOCK*, I WILL FORCE YOU TO DO IT! EVEN IF IT’S THROUGH ANNOYING YOU SO MUCH THAT YOU WILL COME WILLINGLY TO TRY TO STRANGLE ME!

CG: NOTICE THE *TRY* PART BEFORE GETTING COCKY, IDIOT!

CG: LAST CHANGE!

CG: OKAY, YOU DESERVE IT.

CG: DUMBASS

CG: IDIOT

CG: SCUMBAG

CG: MORON

CG: GRUBFUCKER

CG: STUPIDEST TROLL EVER

CG: WASTE OF SPACE

CG: LIVING BATTERY

CG: BULGESUCKER

The list continues like that for a while until it eventually evolves into an abusive use of the commands Ctr+C / Ctr+V, which explains the uninterrupted beeping torture of minutes ago. Even now you can see Karkat still sending you the same insults over and over. His lack of imagination is almost pitiful.

CG: GRUBFUCKER

CG: DUMBASS

CG: IDIOT

TA: wiill you 2hut up already KK?!

TA: you are more needy than a bliind, liimble22, mutant grub ju2t out of the cavern2

TA: iim up now fyii

CG: WELL, WELL, WELL, LOOK WHO FINALLY DECIDED TO GET UP FROM HIS CLAWBEAST HIBERNATION STATE!

TA: you fuckiing forced me two get up from my piile two 2top the fuckiing notiifiication noii2e

TA: iit wa2 warm and co2y and everythiing thii2 empty dead rock ii2nt

TA: you forced me two get up only for thii2 bull2hiit

TA: you ruiined my niight vanta2 hope you are happy now

CG: STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING EVERYONE! THE PRINCE OF MORONLAND HAS WOKEN UP TONIGHT WITH AN ACUTE SYMPTOM OF *I DON’T FUCKING CARE, CAPTOR!*

CG: WE HAVE ALL BEEN SUBJECTED TO VRISKA’S EVIL MONOLOGUES AND LALONDE’S MELODRAMATIC ANSWERS FOR HOURS AND NOBODY CARED, BUT OUR TYRANT MONARCH HAD TO WAKE UP EARLY AND THAT'S THE WORST TRAGEDY TO EVER BE AND EVER WILL! WHAT WERE YOU DOING WHILE THE REST OF US SUFFERED, OH YOUR EXCELLENCY?! YOU WERE FUCKING SNUGGLING IN YOUR FUCKING STUPID PILE LIKE AN IGNORANT, HELPLESS GRUB!

CG: TIME TO GROW UP AND JOIN THE REST OF THE ADULTS HERE, FUCKNOOK! YOU HAVE BEEN DETHRONED AND NOW YOU ARE SCUM LIKE EVERYONE ELSE HERE! YOU ARE FUCKING WELCOME!

CG: EXEMPT KANAYA FROM MY PREVIOUS COMMENT. AS SAID PREVIOUSLY, SHE IS THE ONLY ONE THAT’S WORTH SOMETHING HERE

TA: are you done wiith your melodramatiic2??!!

TA: iit2 not my problem iif you are bored out of your miind, iit2 your fault for lettiing psychotroll bo22 you around

TA: who care2 about her 2tupiid weekly meetiing2??

TA: not me

CG: OH, FUCK OFF! IT’S NOT LIKE WE HAVE MUCH ELSE TO DO HERE!

CG: I CAN’T EVEN SEE ANY MOVIE IN MY HUSKTOP ANYMORE BECAUSE SOMEONE HAS REFUSED TO FIX IT! I’M LUCKY TO HAVE AT LEAST A PALMHUSK WITH WHICH USE TROLLIAN!

TA: ii warned you that iif you 2ma2hed iit wiith your dramatic tantrum2 one more tiime you would have two fiix iit your2elf

TA: not my fault iif you cant re2traiin your temper

CG: I WAS STRESSED TRYING TO KEEP ALL OF YOU FUCKERS ALIVE!! AND THAT WAS PERIGEES AGO!!

TA: ii dont care

TA: 2tiill your own fault

TA: iim putiing you iin 2iilence and goiing back two 2leep

CG: NO, WAIT!!

CG: COME ON, YOU HAVE NOT LEFT YOUR SECTION OR THE ALCHEMITER BLOCK IN NIGHTS, SOLLUX!

CG: AND YOU WOULD PROBABLY WANT TO BE HERE FOR THIS

TA: for what??

CG: I’M GOING TO RELEASE GAMZEE

TA: WHAT??!!

TA: you cant be 2eriiou2 tell me you are jokiing KK

CG: OKAY, YOU ARE JOKIING KK

TA: 2top patronii2iing me

CG: YEAH, THAT WAS TOO MUCH. SORRY

TA: fuck you are 2eriiou2

TA: have you gone twotally iin2ane, KK??!! 

TA: why would you even con2iider the optiion of relea2iing hiim??!!

TA: have you already forgotten what he diid to equiiu2 and nepeta??

CG: NO, OF COURSE NOT!

CG: I DIDN’T MEAN *RELEASE* AS LETTING HIM GO ANYWHERE HE WANTS, TO DO WHATEVER HE WANTS WITHOUT SUPERVISION

CG: I JUST DON’T THINK HE SHOULD STAY IN VRISKA’S CARE, SHE IS NOT THE MOST CARING TROLL EXACTLY. 

TA: that2 a bla2phemy

TA: 2piidertroll ii2 the mo2t meek p2ychopathiic viiolent miind-controlliing troll ever

TA: ii 2tiill dont 2ee where the problem ii2

CG: COME ON, NOBODY HAS SEEN HIM IN PERIGEES! WHAT IF VRISKA PUT HIM SOMEWHERE AND LEFT HIM THERE TO DIE?!

TA: let hiim diie for all ii care

CG: WELL, I DO! I’M NOT LETTING HIM DIE OF STARVATION OR SOMETHING EQUALLY STUPIDLY NEGLIGENT!!

Of course KK would protect the deranged clown. Fuck, they were almost-moirails before the game, right? And they stuck together through the full perigee there, while you were doing the same with FF. You feel a momentaneous stab in your blood pusher the moment you think of FF.

FF was amazing and she also had a huge crush on you.

She didn’t deserve to die.

It’s not fucking fair, she was gorgeous, funny, strong, and nice. One of the few trolls that had been truly, completely nice to you for no other reason than you being you. She is dead now and, even when you only knew her for a short time, you still miss her. Karkat and Makara were almost-moirails for sweeps. Maybe it’s not that weird that KK is worried about him even after Makara going crazy. Especially with KK being how he is. It’s still a bad idea, though.

TA: and what wiill you do??

TA: briing hiim to your 2ectiion, where he can kiill you on your 2leep??

CG: HE WOULDN’T!!

TA: are you 2ure of that??

TA: it2 your fuckiing liife KK, ii know we joke about iit 2ometiimes but ii dont actually want you to diie fucka22

CG: …  


TA: 2orry that wa2 weiird

TA: iignore me

CG: NO, I GET IT SOLLUX

CG: THANKS, THAT MEANS A LOT TO ME

CG: MAYBE YOU ARE RIGHT, I SHOULD BE MORE CAUTIOUS WITH GAMZEE

CG: AND FOR THE RECORD, I DON’T REALLY WANT YOU TO DIE, EITHER

TA: ii already knew that but thank2 ii gue22??

CG: EVEN WHEN YOU PISS ME OFF SO MUCH ON A DAILY BASIS THAT SOMETIMES I DREAM OF KILLING YOU MYSELF WITH MY OWN HANDS, I DON’T REALLY WANT YOU TO DIE

TA: …

You have to force yourself to put your fingers away from the keyboard before you type something ridiculous in response to that. You read the last sentence again to be sure you didn’t misread it the first time. The words are still there, in grey capital letters. KK saying how much he wants to kill you sometimes, but not really. That’s an almost textbook blackrom solicitation. Fuck. You can hear the sound of your accelerated blood pusher’s resonating in your auricular sponge clots and feel your face burning. You grab your horns with your prongs and rest your thinkpan front on the desk while you try to breathe normally. 

“It’s not like that,” you remind yourself aloud. “KK doesn’t mean it how it sounds, it’s only him speaking without thinking, like always.”

It’s not as he has never typed similar things before, and he never meant anything with them then, either. It has always been only you reading too much into what he says or does. So, what if you both black-flirt sometimes? What if everyone believes that you are dating when you are definitely not? You are friends, you have been hatefriends for half your life, he is the best hatefriend you could ever find. Don’t mess that now with your stupid feelings, Sollux!

But what if he means it like it sounds? What if he feels for you the same way that you feel for him?

Yeah, right. There is so much to hate about you right now with your stupid, powerless, pitiful body.

Right, even if KK actually meant it for once, he can’t be seeing you as a proper rival anymore. Not without your psionics. A grub would be a better opponent than you are right now. You remember exactly how it felt having KK under you on the ground, and the feeling of being thrown away casually as if you weren’t using all your weight to restrain him. You can still feel the incredible amount of raw strength contained in his small, mutant body. A shiver goes down your posture pole.

Fuck, bad idea.

Stop thinking about this right now, think about something else.

Coding, bees, computers, binary language.

And breathe, Sollux, keep on breathing.

Your screen lights up suddenly with a message notification, and only now you notice that you have been lost in your almost panic attack for so long that your computer has gone into rest mode. It’s probably KK, trolling you again. Fuck, you stopped talking to him just after his last sentence. What if he has realised your reaction? You rush to your keyboard and open Trollian again.

CG: I MEAN, I DON’T WANT ANYONE ELSE TO DIE EITHER BUT ESPECIALLY NOT YOU. YOU HAVE DIED ON ME TWICE ALREADY, THERE IS NO NEED FOR A THIRD, MORE PERMANENT DEAD. NO MORE HALF-GHOST SOLLUXES

CG: WHICH BY THE WAY HAVING TWO WAS ALREADY UNFAIR

CG: BUT I GUESS THAT FOR ONCE I’M GLAD THAT YOUR DUALITY OBSESSION EVEN APPLIES TO YOUR DREAM SELVES. SOMETHING GOOD CAME OUT OF IT FOR UNBELIEVABLY AS THIS CONCEPT MIGHT BE

CG: ANYWAY, I WANT TO AT LEAST CHECK ON GAMZEE. ONLY TO BE SURE THAT HE IS ALIVE AND WELL, YOU KNOW

CG: AND I WAS HOPING YOU WOULD BE HERE TOO

CG: NOT THAT I NEED YOUR WEAK ASS TO PROTECT ME, I CAN DO IT MYSELF PERFECTLY FINE, THANKS

CG: I WAS JUST HOPING FROM SOME MORAL SUPPORT, I GUESS

CG: …

CG: SOLLUX?

CG: OH GODS, I REALISE NOW HOW PITIFUL AND PATHETIC I SOUNDED JUST NOW! FORGET IT!

You let go of all the air you had been keeping in your bellowsacs. He has not realised what he said to you, as usual. For being such a self-proclaimed expert in quadrant romance, KK can be so oblivious sometimes. You ignore the pinching pain in your blood pusher and begin typing.

TA: ehehehe

TA: youre alway2 pathetiic KK

CG: SHUT UP BULGESUCKER!

TA: and before you a2k ye2 we are 2tiill friiend2

CG: OH, OKAY, GOOD THEN

CG: CRAP, TEREZI HAS SEEN ME TYPING ON MY PALMHUSK AND SHE IS COMING THIS WAY

TA: 2een you??

CG: YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAKARGBIRLUGFBAUEFHEHFEOU;TYRU

TA: ehehehe

CG: MR. 4PPL3B3RRY BL4ST, WH4T 4 SURPR1S3

CG: UPS

gallowsCalibrator [GC] has been added to the conversation at 10:36

GC: TH3R3, B3TT3R

GC: 4S 1 W4S S4Y1NG

GC: MR. 4PPL3B3RRY BL4ST, WH4T 4 SURPR1S3

TA: ey terezii

GC: 1S TH3R3 4 R34SON FOR YOU M1SS1NG OUR W33KLY M33TING??

GC: WH4T H4S TH3 4CCUS3D TO S4Y 1N H1S D3F3NC3??

TA: ii just over2lept

GC: 4 PL4US1BL3 BUT OV3RUS3D AL1B1

GC: 1S TH3R3 SOM3ON3 TH4T C4N CORR4BOR4T3 YOUR STORY, M1ST3R?

TA: oh ii wiill have two check my note2 

TA: ii have a 2 page2 long waiitiing lii2t for concupii2cent pro2pect2 wii2hiing for the honor to jump iinto my paiiliing 2urface for a day 2o iit2 hard two keep track of them 2ometiime2

GC: H3H3H3H3H3

GC: SUCH 4 BUSY SOC14L L1F3

TA: you know how iit ii2

GC: F11111N3, YOU 4R3 P4RDON3D W1TH TH3 COND1T1ON TH4T YOU COM3 TO TH3 W4R BLOCK 1MM3D14T3LY

TA: yeah, iim comiing

GC: JDNF;JSBFOJEHQFIQEHFJBF

TA: ehehehe

GC: SORRY 4BOUT TH4T, TH3R3 1S 4 R3B3L1OUS C1T1Z3N H3R3

GC: 1M K33P1NG K4RK4T’S P4LMHUSK FOR NOW, H3 H4D B33N TOO D1STR4CT3D FOR SOM3 STR4NG3 R34SON

GC: >;]

TA: 2ure

TA: terezii?? do me a favour dont let kk get clo2e two makara untiil iim there

GC: >:[

GC: WHY WOULD H3 B3 CLOS3 TO H1M??

TA: he2 got the crazy iidea two relea2e hiim

TA: or at lea2t two check on hiim

GC: >:o

TA: two make 2ure that he ii2 2tiil aliive or 2omething liike that

GC: H3 H4S NOT S41D 4NYTH1NG 4BOUT G4MZ33!!

TA: ju2t keep hiim under control untiil ii get there ok??

GC: YOU GOT 1T MR. 4PPL3B3RRY BL4ST!!

GC: S33 YOU NOW!!

gallowsCalibrator [GC] has stopped trolling twinArmageddons [TA] at 10:53

carcinoGeneticist [CG] has stopped trolling twinArmageddons [TA] at 10:53

You close trollian and leave your husktop running a couple of programs in saving energy mode before you get up from your chair. You should get going. You take a look at your dirty clothes; you are running out of clean shirts and you still hadn’t figured out the code for a garbs-washing machine. Luckily, you still have a clean short sleeved shirt with your sign in your sylladex. You change into it and keep your pants on, they are black and mostly clean so nobody will notice. Probably. With that, you leave your respiteblock.

For a moment you have a bad sensation, like a premonition, as if something bad is going to happen soon. It couldn’t be that, though, you are not a Seer after all. Without counting your psionics, you never got more powers than hearing the voices of the doomed, and you lost that ability after your second death. It’s probably nothing. You shrug off the feeling and keep on walking.

* * *

“Absolutely not!!” argues Vriska. “Crazy clown stays exactly where he is!!”

“Since when are you the leader here, spidertroll?!” yells KK. “Didn’t you all decide to not have any hierarchy in the meteor?! Or it was, as I suspected, only a plot to take leadership from me with subterfuge and mental tricks?!!”

“Nobody cares about your self-esteem issues, nubhead!!” screams back psychotroll. “I have Makara under control, and he is fiiiiiiiine!”

“Am I supposed to believe you like that without any proof?!” refutes the shorter troll. “Sure, you have always been such a nice, pacifistic, rational troll. Why wouldn't I put my blind faith in you?!” continues KK with a sarcastic tone. “Sorry for the pun, Terezi.”

“No problem!” replies the teal-blooded girl with a huge smile and a relaxed shrug.

You sigh and keep observing the verbal fight with your chin resting on your knees and absently trying to nudge your psionics back on your hands. It doesn’t work, of course, and you are getting bored. The Serket vs Vantas confrontation is nothing new for any of you at this point, even if the topic in question is worrisome. It turns out that Terezi kept her word and sat on KK until you arrived at the War Block. Literally.

You would have loved to see that! KK probably shouted himself raw!

Yeah, someone else being humiliated for once is always nice.

Apparently, she also told everyone about his intentions, and they had been debating it since then. It eventually turned into a screaming match between KK and spidertroll because that was how they were. Nothing new in Vantasland.

“THIS IS ENOUGH!!”

You turn your lookstubs to the new voice, surprised, and see that the one shouting was Lalonde. That’s weird, you have never seen her altered before. The human girl is always frustratingly composed and calm, with sharp lookstubs and a sharper tongue, ready to verbally break down anyone into a pathetic sobbing mess if needed. Even now she looks calm and quiet, standing there with her thinkpan hold high and elegant clothes slowly floating around her. However, there is something dark and omniscient surrounding her, like an obscure aura. She also has her wands in her pronds, pointing to the ground for now but ready to be used at any moment.

“This debate is going nowhere,” she continues with a calmer voice. “And as it is a topic that affects everyone in the meteor, we are going to discuss it among all of us in a more civilised manner instead of screaming like beasts with rabies,” she says with a cold glare directed to both trolls. “Now, both of you, SIT DOWN!”

She moves one of her wands in a quick gesture with the turn of her wrist and both trolls end up slumped on the floor in an instant. KK looks surprised but Serket seems ready to fight with the other Light player there and then. Luckily, Terezi decides just then to sit on the spidertroll’s back, and Serket ends up face-crashing to the ground with a screech. Kanaya moves to sit near KK and helps him to sit properly with some soft words. Oh, are the four of them in conciliatory relationships now? Well, not your problem in any case. You turn back to Lalonde, who is sitting again on her pillow in a modest position, as if she had not just manhandled two trolls with a turn of her hand. Her wands are resting near her on the ground. Interesting, maybe she won’t be such an easy punch bag in your duel.

Not that it matters anyway, she will never surpass you!

She could kill you easily right now, though

You will get your psionics back and then show her who is the best!

IF you get your psionics back, remember?

“I also believe that it would be better to leave Gamzee where he is.” comments Kanaya with a calm voice. “But I understand your concerns, Karkat, he was your friend, after all.”

“He is also a crazy murderer juggalo and a purple highblood, though,” adds Terezi from her troll-made pillow. ”He already killed Equius and sweet Nepeta in cold blood and tried to kill everyone else. For all we know, he might be the reason we all ended doomed in our past timeline.”

“You don’t know that!” protested Karkat. “And even if it was, isn’t that hypocrite of you both? Remind me who was the one to kill Tavros here!”

“And Aradia,” you add.

“Wait, Aradia?” asks Strider. “Isn’t she the other Time player? The one that stayed behind, near the Green Sun? I thought she was alive.”

“She got better,” you shrug.

“I thought that we were over it!” protests spidertroll. “That was sweeps ago! And Aradia killed me during the game!”

“Wasn’t killing kind of normal for you, guys?” insists Strider. “Almost expected of you or some bs like that. Which is already fucked up, fyi.”

Yeah, the human is right. You also killed a couple of fuckers that tried to rob you on the streets a few sweeps ago. And, of course, you technically were the one to kill your moirail. Kanaya killed Eridan, at least, and who knows who else before the game. Terezi manipulated dozens into their deaths during the FLARP campaigns, and she did the same to one of the humans, leading them into a doomed timeline. She also killed Serket in the previous one, but that probably doesn’t count because technically it was another version of Terezi. Maybe the only one that has not killed another troll or human here is KK. Nobody is surprised about that.

“Yeah, so what?” asks Serket, managing to raise up her thinkpan from the ground just enough to talk. “Fuck, Terezi! Let me go already!”

“Are you going to behave, or will you try to mind-fuck someone if I do it?” asks back Terezi.

“They deserve it,” pouts spidertroll.

“Vris,” scolds the other girl.

“Okay, okay,” finally concedes Serket. “But let me go already, you are heavy, Pyrope!”

Terezi slaps the other on her thinkpan, probably in retaliation for her last comment, and gets up from her back. Spidertroll sits back, throwing a murderous glance towards the blind girl for a moment before focusing back on Strider.

“Don’t you dare judge me, human!” she screams to him. “For your information, I had a very huge, very hungry lusus to feed since I was a grub! It was them or me! I did what I had to do to survive!”

“For gods’ sake! Nobody cares about your grubhood traumas, spidertroll!” interrupts KK, rolling up his lookstubs. “Buaaaaaa! It’s so hard to be filthy rich, have the power to control others and be high enough in the hemospectrum to be a predator and not prey!!” he says in a mocking imitation of Serket’s voice. “You had a shitty lusus, so what?! Mine sucked, too! And, in addition, I also had to worry about weekly visits of the fucking culling drones!

Wow, that has gone quickly out of hand. With how quickly these two tend to end in an argument, someone might think that they are in a black quadrant. Not you though, it is clear that there are no romantic feelings involved here, only platonic hatred.

Are you sure of that?

Why would KK want a kismesis like her when there are so much better options here?

You mean like you.

Hey, even you see it. It's nobody's fault if you are that good.

“I think we should go back to our previous topic of discussion,” interrupts Lalonde. “I agree that it would be hypocritical to keep someone locked up in poor conditions for having killed someone, when others with the same crime accusations are free.”

“I told you he is fine!” repeats spidertroll.

“Then there would be no problem if we check!” insists KK.

“As I have voiced earlier, I cannot be less concerned about the wellbeing of our undesired colleague,” adds Kanaya. “But I can understand why Karkat is concerned about him remaining in your care, Vriska. You are not exactly the compassionate type of troll.”

“For fucks sake!” protests Serket. “It’s not that hard! I bring him food and drinks regularly and let him go to the load gaper sometimes, under supervision of course. That’s all that’s needed to do, and, by the way, I have been doing it on my own for perigees without any of you helping! You are fucking welcome!”

“When was the last time you brought him food?” asks Terezi.

“I don’t know, yesterday?” answers spidertroll avoiding lookstub contact.

“Yesterday you stayed all night in my section, and the night before too,” insists the blind troll.

“You have left him without food or drinks for nights?!” screams KK.

“He is a highblood!” protests Serket. “He won’t die from that!”

Yeah, that doesn’t sound good. You are almost feeling sorry for Makara now. It’s not the lack of regular food or freedom. Being isolated for perigees with only psychotroll as occasional company when she dignifies to remember your existence sounds like a daymare to you. But on the other hand, he is dangerous.

“What about his mental state?” interrupted Lalonde then. “I don’t know what is the effect of isolation on your species, but humans’ mental health is usually impaired after long periods of solitude.”

“Yeah, we don’t need to make the crazy person even crazier than he already is,” states Strider.

“See?! They agree with me!” exclaims KK.

“I didn’t say that, actually,” protests the human guy.

“Shut up Strider, and keep validating me!” replies KK. “You were doing so well.”

“Dude, how am I supposed to shut up and talk at the same time?” complains Strider.

“You know what I meant!”

See? This is something that worries you a bit more. That human had been antagonizing KK since the beginning in a way that could almost be considered black-flirting. He clearly enjoys messing with him, and you can’t really blame him for it, KK is funny when he is bothered. However, you didn’t think that the humans could have pitch feelings.

It clearly looks like it.

It’s only a mask. Humans are not capable of black-romance.

Maybe you shouldn’t feel bothered about it, even if Strider is flirting with KK in the same quadrant that you have been testing for sweeps. The human clearly doesn’t know what he is doing, and KK doesn’t seem to feel that way about him. He is too occupied being jealous of the red-flirting between Strider and Terezi. However, that jealousy could easily become hatred and that could lead to pitch feelings. You probably should keep a lookstub on Strider, you will be damned if you let him steal KK from you! He is YOUR best hatefriend, not HIS, dammit!

“I believe we should vote on this,” suggests Terezi. “It would only be fair.”

“What are we voting on really?” asks Strider. “On leaving him where he is or releasing him?”

“Or we could cull him here and now and it would be one less thing to worry about,” comments Kanaya while casually renewing her lipstick.

“Kanaya!” protests KK.

“I am sorry Karkat, I know he was your friend,” she apologies. “But he is dangerous, and I believe he might represent an even bigger risk to you than anybody else. I can’t tolerate that.”

“But…” hesitates KK. “Gamzee is still my friend.”

“He was quite obsessed with you, Karkat,” explains the jade-blooded girl. “I worry what that fixation would lead to now, in his aberrant mental state.”

Oh, you haven’t considered that. Makara was certainly enamoured with KK almost since the first time they talked, but it was something mutual. KK liked to complain about him constantly, from his ridiculous religion to his tendency to eat sopor pies constantly, but it had always been in an almost fond way. They were the strangest pair: the subjugglator and the mutant. It had always been clear to everyone that there was something pale between them and it almost seemed… poetic.

You used to be jealous of Makara, remember? When you had a pale crush on KK?

That was before AA, though! And a moirallegiance with him wouldn’t have worked well for either of you. You know better now!

Right. How is the _‘lusting sexually after your best hatefriend’_ part going out for you?

Come on! KK is too annoying to be considered good moirail material! It’s a lot funnier like this, anyway!

“If it helps,” interrupts Lalonde. “I haven’t been able to see anything concrete yet, but I have the strong feeling that Gamzee still has an important role to do. Something out of my sight, but vital for our victory.”

“Killing him is out, then,” concludes Terezi. “Then, we should vote to let things go as they are now. If it works for you, Vriska?”

“Fine for me,” agrees the blue-blooded girl.

“And what would be the other option?” insists Karkat. “I think I might be able to keep him in check, or at least calmer. We could move him to my section or somewhere else. It would be better than keeping him in a small box.”

“I agree,” says Lalonde. “Complete isolation for three years would break anyone’s mind. I’m afraid what it can do to him, if he already has such a violent inclination as I have heard.”

“I don’t like the idea of having a murderer running free in the meteor, ” adds Strider. “But maybe we could at least give him a better room or lock him up in his own section or something like that. That way he would be able to at least move and use the computers to talk with someone.”

“Those seem like reasonable options,” decides Terezi. “Then, those that want to give him a change and/or better accommodations, raise your hands.”

KK and the two humans raise their hands. Three votes. You keep your prong down while you think it over. Somehow, it doesn’t feel right to you.

“Now, those that are tired of his bullshit and would prefer to keep him locked where he is, rise your hands.” continues Terezi.

She, Kanaya and Vriska raise their hands. You don’t. It still doesn’t feel like a good option.

“Three on each side,” sighs Kanaya. “A tie.”

“Sollux?” you hear KK call you. “Fuckass, why didn't you vote?”

“Not now, KK,” you mutter while you think it over.

“What do you mean with _‘not now’_ , idiot?!” he asks with a bad imitation of your voice. “It’s three against three so we need your vote to decide! Yes or no, what is so hard about it?!”

“Just give me a moment, for fuck sake!” you scream.

You close your lookstubs and try to think. It doesn’t feel right, none of those options feel good. It’s as if something is telling you that bad things will happen if you choose either of them. This sensation is similar to hearing the voices of the doomed inside your pan, but this time without voices. The most important fact is the same: something is wrong.

“Sollux?” this time Kanaya is the one calling you.

You open your lookstubs and see everyone looking at you with confused expressions. Right, you probably look crazy. You should make a decision.

“Both options sound bad for me,” you try to explain. “I don’t trust Makara at all, but I agree that it would be hypocritical to judge him for something that others are being forgiven for. So, if I have to choose between those two options, I’m in favour of at least talking to him. If he is still murder-crazy we can let him stay there.”

That’s a bit of a third option, right? It feels a bit better, but you are still worried. However, KK smiles gratefully at you, and you do your best to ignore the heat inside of you at his approval. Fuck, you should not be happy for these kind of things! It’s not supposed to be like this! You turn your back on him and focus on the wall with the secret door to where Makara is. 

“Decided then!” declares Terezi. “Four in favour and three against. I don’t like it, but the law is the law.”

There are some complaints coming from Serket, but all of you ignore her. You walk to the large machine blocking the door and, for a moment, you are more frustrated than ever about your lack of psionics. If you had them now, you could easily move the machine away yourself, but instead you have to wait until spidertroll captchalogues it into her sylladex.

“Is it a good idea to just go in like this?” asks Strider. “I would prefer to not be attacked before I can even enter the room.“

“I agree,” says Terezi. “Can you put him to sleep, Vriska?”

“Sure,” agrees the other troll before focusing her gaze on the wall. “Done, he is asleep.”

“What are you waiting for then?” growls KK. “Open the door already!”

“Don’t boss me around as if you were someone important here, Nubkat,” argues Serket, but in the end she does what he asks.

Spidertroll pushes a couple of buttons on the wall and a part of it opens towards the inside like a regular door. The secret block is small, not more than five steps from wall to wall and it’s completely dark. Lalonde gets closer and the light from her God Tier clothes illuminates the shape of someone on the ground, predictably asleep. Makara doesn’t look good. He is a lot thinner than you remember, and he is dirty from the top of his horns to the bottom of his shoes. He still has on the blood-stained clothes that he was wearing last time you saw him, just after you got your vision back, and he looks exhausted. Fuck, KK was right, this is horrible.

“Wtf dude?!” you hear Strider exclaim.

There is a loud shriek and KK pushes everyone away in his rush to get to the unconscious troll. He falls on his knees in front of him and lets out a sad whine. Ouch, that’s really pitiful. You check Kanaya’s expression and you can see clearly in her face that she really wants to comfort KK, but at the same time she seems hurt. It must be hard to see someone for whom you have pale feelings be so worried about someone else’s wellbeing.

“What?” replies Serket, then. “He’s alive!”

“This is inhuman,” continues Lalonde. “Karkat is right, we should have never let you take responsibility for him.”

“Oh, fuck you!” protests Serket again. “What do you know anyway?! We are trolls, NOT humans!”

“Even I find this bad, Vriska,” argues Terezi. “Are you sure that he’s alive? He smells like shit.”

“ **Wake him up,** ” you hear someone say in a low voice that you had never heard before.

You turn to the source of it, surprised when you see that it’s KK. It's clear judging by the murderous look he is throwing to Serket that he was the one talking, but that was definitely not his normal voice. Everyone else is suddenly silent, looking astonished at the troll on the ground. 

“What?” asks Serket in a strange insecure tone of voice.

“ **I SAID WAKE HIM UP, SERKET!** ” yells KK this time. “ **NOW!!** ”

Something is wrong, more than only the sick troll on the floor. KK’s voice sounds different: deeper and more commanding than usual. There is the undertone of a snarl in it, and it’s somehow resonating in your sponge. You can feel KK’s anger in your bones, and you have the strange impulse to do what he says, to obey his order, even when it was not directed at you. The sensation only lasts a moment before you shake it off. When you look around, you see Terezi and Kanaya shaking their heads too, as confused as you, but Serket is almost in tears. Then, spidertroll raises her prong to her thinkpan with an empty look in her lookstubs and you know that she is blindly obeying. She is waking up Makara.

**_The moment Makara opens his lookstubs , he sees everyone surrounding him and he lets go a threatening growl._ **

**_“Hey Gamzee, it’s okay,” says KK with his normal voice again, smiling softly at the clown. “Everything is going to be alright now.”_ **

**_The purple-blooded troll’s lookstubs focus on KK and there is a bit of recognition in his lookstubs._ **

**_“Karbro,” he says and smiles softly. “I knew you would come back for me, palebro.”_ **

**_For a moment, it seems that everything will be okay because Makara is wearing his usual dopey expression and smiling adoringly at KK, but it doesn’t last long. Suddenly, the look in his lookstubs changes from love to hatred, and his soft smile turns huge and malicious. He is gone crazy again._ **

**_“I knew you would eventually come back, MOTHERFUCKER!” he screams._ **

**_Before you can react, there is a blood-stained club in his prong and he brings it down violently on KK’s thinkpan, splashing everywhere with red mutant blood. Your horrified scream mixes with Kanaya’s, neither of you having reacted on time. You rush inside the block, trying to reach your best hatefriend, while Kanaya activates her chainsaw. The clown raises his club once more and you are hit on the side with it and thrown away, crashing with the side wall. You are dizzy for a few seconds and, when you can focus again, you hear screams and see red blood everywhere. Makara has jumped out of the block and you can hear the sounds of battle, screams, and the raw noise of Kanaya’s chainsaw out there. You ignore them and crawl towards the body in the middle of the block, resting in a pool of red blood._ **

**_“KK!” you call him. “Fuck, KK, wake up!”_ **

**_Your prongs are shaking when you reach the body, and you know instantly that he is dead. His nugbone and chest are both caved in, leaving him an unrecognizable mass of red blood and grey skin. You know he is dead; he has to be dead after so much damage, but you try to find his pulse anyway. There is nothing and he is also not breathing. Your prongs are stained red and yellow tears are falling and mixing with his blood. This can’t be true. You were supposed to save him, that was the whole point of staying here, right?_ **

**_You try to clean his face of blood with your shaky prongs and you kiss him quickly, hoping for a miracle. Nothing happens, he can’t be revived because his dream self is dead. You knew that already, but you had to try. Lost, you keep looking at him, probably for the last time. His face has been destroyed and he is almost unrecognizable, but he is still beautiful to you. In your mind, you see his big, round nose, his thick eyebrows, his toothy smile, and his huge expressive lookstubs._ **

**_“I’m sorry, KK,” you apologize. “I failed to protect you.”_ **

**_You collapse over him, sobbing, and stay there until you hear someone walking back into the block. You raise your thinkpan and see Makara in the threshold, with his club freshly stained with teal, jade, and blue blood. He has already killed the rest and now he has come back for you. You reach to the psionics inside you, furious, and try to send him away, but you can barely move him. He laughs at your useless effort._ **

**_“Fucking miracles, motherfucker!” he laughs before raising his club with a murderous smile._ **

**_You close your lookstubs, knowing that you are next._ **

You open your lookstubs and look around you, confused. You are alive. Everything looks like moments before Makara lost his shit. What was that? Some kind of vision? KK! Where is KK? You look for him, checking inside the block and finding him on the ground in front of a half-asleep Makara.

“Hey Gamzee, it’s okay,” you hear him say. “Everything is going to be alright now.”

Your blood freezes in your veins when you recognise the exact same words of your vision and you rush into the block, pushing Kanaya out of your way in your desperation.

“Get away from him, KK!” you scream.

You see your friend turning to you, surprised, but behind him Makara is finally completely awake. The purple-blood smiles the same huge, creepy smile you saw in your vision and raises his hand, still empty but soon to be filled with a club. No, no, no! You reach for your psionics, desperate to pull KK out of the way, and miraculously you manage to control them enough to pull KK back a few millimetres. It’s not much but it’s enough for you to finally reach him and grab his sweater, pulling him towards you with all your strength and falling backwards to the ground together, just in time to avoid a club crashing to the floor exactly where KK had been.

KK screams directly in your auricular clot, while you crush him against your chest desperately and try to cover him with your own body, aware that Makara won’t stop that easily. You think quickly of which options you have here. You don’t have enough psionics right now to do anything against him, and in your vision the clown killed everyone in minutes, so straight-up fighting is not an option either. There is only one way to survive this.

“Put him down again, Serket!” you order while reaching into your sylladex, trying to buy some time.

Makara seems surprised that you managed to pull KK away from him. He looks at the hole in the floor for a moment before looking at you, and then he cracks out laughing his crazy-sounding laugh. This is bad, you need to do something right now!

Your throwing-stars! Use them!

No! It won’t work!

“That was fast, Solbro,” he compliments with his maniac smile. “Fucking miracles, motherfucker! Let’s see if you can do it a second time!”

With that, he raises his club again, clearly trying to flatten both of you on the ground. KK screams, and your arm around him tightens while you pull him further under your body. You finally manage to reach the configuration in your captchalogue desk with your other prong and activate the option _‘release everything’_ before throwing the card towards your aggressor. Everything you had in your sylladex, from the flask of mind-honey to your throwing stars, crashes against Makara. It doesn’t really hurt him that much, but he seems so surprised by the unconventional attack that he stops for a moment.

Just then, something bright jumps over you, and, with a loud sound, his club is cut in two. Other shapes rush into the block around you, and soon Makara is on the floor with the swords of both Strider and Terezi threatening his vital points. There is a dark aura coming out from Lalonde’s wands and surrounding Makara, keeping him restrained on the floor. Finally, Kanaya’s bright shape moves back and stands between you and the clown, her chainsaw in hand.

“LET ME GO, MOTHERFUCKERS!!” you hear the crazy troll scream. “I WILL KILL YOU! ALL OF YOU! I WILL USE YOUR BLOOD TO DECORATE MY WALLS!”

You use the opportunity to get up, pulling KK with you. He looks scared to death, but he has one of his sickles in his prong, still grabbing you with the other. You pull him back until you are against the wall. There’s nothing else you can do. You don’t even have anything in your sylladex anymore. Why has Serket not mind-controlled him yet? You look at her quickly, and see the blue-blooded troll resting on the door frame with a dizzy look, a prong in her thinkpan side.

“What is taking so long, Vriska?!” yells Terezi.

“My head fucking hurts, ok?!” you hear Serket answer.

“That’s what she said,” jokes Strider with a serious face while putting more pressure in the sword against Makara’s neck.

“Not the best moment for jokes, Dave,” it’s Lalonde’s reply.

“There!” finally exclaims the troll, and instantly Makara’s body relaxes.

Nobody moves for a few moments, still high on tension and fear. Finally, Lalonde stops her magic restrictions and, when the purple-blooded troll doesn’t move, Terezi and Strider back away from him, slowly. Makara only snores. You are still grabbing KK’s sweater and you don’t think you would be able to let him go for a while. Kanaya turns towards you.

“Are you both okay?” she asks in her gentlest tone.

“I’m fine, Kanaya,” answers KK with a shaky voice.

You don’t answer, instead you begin pulling KK towards the door, focusing on getting as far away from Makara as possible. You see Lalonde quickly captchaloging your stuff, but you couldn’t care less. Once outside, you push KK as far as you can without leaving the block and you don’t stop until he has his back on the far wall and you are in front of him, guarding him. If Makara attacks him again, he will have to kill you first. You feel your body tremble and your lookstubs itch. 

“Sollux?” asks KK, still behind you. “Are you alright?”

**_KK’s face crashed in. Yellow tears mixing with red. A club stained with multicoloured blood. A large pool of red blood. Screams, and pained growls, and fear._ **

You shake your thinkpan, trying to erase the remaining figments of that horrible vision. For a moment you are not sure if this is the reality or another doomed vision. You turn to your friend and grab KK by his shoulders. He is really here.

“You are alive,” you said aloud, trying to convince yourself of it. “He didn’t kill you this time.”

“This time?” you hear him whisper. “Did you, Sollux, did you see Gamzee killing me?”

**_Your prongs in KK’s bloodied face, trying to clean it somehow. Kissing his cold lips. His nugbone is broken. There is no pulse. He is not breathing. He is dead. You lost him._ **

Fuck, you are going to cry in front of KK, and it will be the most embarrassing moment of your life. But fuck, he is alive! You hide your face in KK’s shoulder and put your arms around him, crashing him against your chest. 

“Yes,” you say. “It felt real, but it wasn’t, it can’t be.”

What if that was real and this is the vision?

Shut up, he is alive.

“Oh,” mutters KK. “But I’m alive.”

Yeah, he is alive. He is, you saved him. Your arms tighten and your prongs grab his shoulders harder. He is here, you can feel it. He is real.

It’s fake. This is only another trick of your mind.

It’s not! He is here, he is alive, this is real.

Don’t fool yourself. KK is dead, you failed him, you let him die.

No, you didn’t. You saved him; he is fine. He is fine, right?

He is gone and you never told him how you truly felt. You lost your opportunity. You lost KK.

“Sollux, Sollux look at me,” someone says, but it sounds distant, as if there is a fog between you. “I’m alive, you saved me.”

“What are you two doing there?” you hear an annoying voice scream. “Has Captor finally turned completely crazy?”

“Shut the fuck up, Serket!!” screams KK from too close a distance to your hear duct to be comfortable. “Give him a fucking second, would you?! He just saved all of our collective asses here!”

“It’s real, it’s not another vision,” you whisper to yourself. “This is real.”

KK is alive.

No, he is not. You saw it, you saw him die.

He is alive now. Look at him! He is real!

Something pushes you away and then hits you in the face and you finally look at him. KK is in front of you, with a prong still raised and smiling at you smugly. Your cheek hurts. Okay, you got the memo, this is real. He is alive, you managed to somehow save him. And the first thing he does in appreciation for your efforts is hitting you. You frown at him.

“What the fuck, KK?!” you growl. “Did you just slap me?!”

“Did that feel real to you, bulgesac?” says KK, smiling at you. “Good. You are welcome.”

You push him away with an annoyed growl and check your surroundings. Both of you are near the further wall in the War Block, with the others in the centre of the block, some of them looking at you with worried expressions. Ok, you might have spaced out for a bit there while you had an almost panic attack, that’s quite embarrassing. There is tension in the air now. Some of them are busy making sure that the door to Makara’s block is properly blocked, and the others are discussing something. The humans in particular seem especially bothered by what had just happened. Good, that way they will finally understand the real danger here.

“Oh, Sollux, come here please,” Kanaya calls you with gentle lookstubs. “Are you feeling better?”

You walk towards them and sit on the ground next to her. KK follows after you and sits on the other side of Kanaya. Strider and Terezi are still guarding the door but the rest are sitting on the floor, too.

“I’m fine, Kanaya,” you say. “Thanks for the save back there.”

“Back to you, Sollux,” she smiles at you. “If you hadn’t reacted that fast, I’m afraid that not all of us would be here now.”

She is holding KK’s arm in a way that she probably thinks is subtle, but it really isn’t. It’s clear that you are not the only one that feared for KK’s life back there. Not that he would have been the only one to die.

**_Makara in the threshold, with his club freshly stained with teal, jade, and blue blood_ **

“I don’t want to pressure you, but would you mind explaining what just happened?” Lalonde asks you. “You seemed to know what was going to happen.”

“Yeah, I did,” you shudder. “We all would have been dead by now. I saw it happening, I lived through it.”

That is a good way to describe it. Your vision had not been like watching a movie, where you are a mere spectator. You were there, you lived through it, felt every hit and each raw emotion. Your side hurt, you were dizzy and terrorised to death. You tainted your prongs with KK’s red blood, held his dead body, and you actually felt yourself dying too. But then, suddenly, you were alive. It’s hard to explain.

“Makara went crazy and killed KK instantly,” you try to explain. “Then, I was pushed away and didn’t see what happened to the rest of you but, judging by the fresh rainbow blood in his club, I assume he killed all of you. Finally, he came back and killed me.” You conclude. “When I opened my lookstubs again, it had not happened yet, but it was about to.”

“That’s when you told me to get away from him,” deduces KK.

You nod and everyone stays in silence for a moment, looking at you with surprise and fear. Finally, Serket is the one to break the ice.

“Captor, your aspect was Doom, right?” asks Serket, then. “Are you saying that you saw us being doomed?”

Oh. Yeah, you are a Mage of Doom, you forget it sometimes. It’s not like you ever had any Doom powers. Well, maybe hearing the voices of the doomed was part of it? And the fact that you knew that everyone was going to die? Or that you would die twice and go blind? But you already knew all that before entering the game, you don’t even know how you knew it. It was never anything intentional and you never did anything Doom-related during the game. Nothing like the vision you just had.

“I’m supposedly a Mage of Doom,” you confirm. “But I never had a vision like this before. I never did anything helpful with my aspect during the game.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” protests KK. “How many times did you make us avoid a doomed timeline?! You were the one that coded Sgrub and convinced us to play in the first place!”

“Yeah KK, thanks for reminding me that I am the cause of our universe's demise!” you argue back.

“I don’t think it was your fault,” interrupts Lalonde. “The same way that we didn’t bring the end of our universe. It was predestined to happen that way, and in a way it had already happened.” she explains in a gentle voice. “There was never anything that any of us could have done to avoid it.”

“And you saved us when you brought us into the game, Sollux,” says Kanaya gently. “You always knew the world was doomed, and you did all you could to save us anyway.” she reminds you. ”You also died bringing the meteor to the Green Sun, saving us from Jack. Another doomed future that you helped us avoid.”

That doesn’t sound right. You doomed your universe. You sent a code to KK that cursed all of you and probably also killed all your lusii. You underestimated Eridan and, in the end, that mistake cost FF and Kanaya their lives. Bringing the meteor to the Green Sun was the minimum thing you could do to try and compensate them for all the times you had fucked things up. However, not even you can’t deny that you have somehow just saved all your lives right now.

“I had a bad sensation before, when we were voting,” you think aloud. “None of the two options felt right, but I thought I was just being paranoid.”

“Oh, that’s interesting,” replies Lalonde. “So, you can somehow feel the doomed timelines before they happen?”

“I have no idea,” you answer honestly. “But it could be, it would explain why I don’t have that sensation anymore.”

“Well, I think that it’s clear that you actually have Doom powers, Captor,” declares spidertroll. “Although I’m sure I could have dealt with Makara perfectly fine on my own, it was nice of you to contribute. Next time warn us before we are already covered in shit, though.”

“Don’t hurt yourself thanking me, Serket,” you say, rolling your lookstubs . “I was mostly saving my own ass, anyway.”

That’s a lie and probably everyone knows it. Your lookstubs move towards KK once more, making sure that he is still here and alive. Fuck, you are going to have daymares about this, you can already feel it. 

“Well, fighting a deranged clown has been fun and all, but I think that we all need a break,” declares Serket. “I have things to plan, and you fuckers need to be out of my section. So, the meeting is finished!”

“What about Gamzee?” asks KK with a quiet voice.

“He stays where he is,” orders Terezi. “At least for now, until we find a better place to put him in, somewhere secure but bigger and with his own ablutionblock. Do you have a problem with that, Karkat?”

“No,” he replies in a subdued voice. “I was wrong, Gamzee is too dangerous now. He needs to be contained.”

“I’m sorry, Karkat,” says Kanaya in a clear attempt to console him. “But it is the best for everyone.”

KK nods, but he is clearly sad about this situation. You suppose that it must be hard to have your almost-moirail suddenly trying to kill you. Maybe this will help him to finally move on from Makara and towards a better moirallegiance. Kanaya would be really good for him.

“It is,” reaffirms Terezi. “Also, from now on I will help you take care of him, Vriska. We can’t let him be in such bad shape, but it’s too dangerous to make you do it alone.”

“I have been fine until now, Pyrope,” complains Serket. “But sure, whatever.”

“I can probably help too,” offers Lalonde. “I was able to at least contain him, and I have some knowledge of psychology. Maybe I can find a way to make him less prone to violence.”

“I seriously doubt it, Lalonde, it’s in his blood, all purple-blooded are crazy,” replies spidertroll. “But sure, play with his sponge if that makes you happy. Now, get out of my space, fuckers!”

With that, all of you leave the block, and you go back to your own section.

You have never been so happy of having figured out the code for a proper ablutionblock last week. You really need a shower right now; you can still feel KK’s red blood in your prongs and see his smashed face in front of you. The worst part of it, though, is the frustrating feeling of impotence you still have. The fact is that you really couldn’t do anything to stop Makara, even when you knew exactly what he was going to do. The only thing you could do was run away and use petty tricks with your sylladex. You were lucky that the rest of your group reacted in time and saved both of you. Even fucking Strider is stronger than you now!

Fuck, you really are useless without your psionics. You need to get them back. The flask of mind-honey that you had in your sylladex had probably broken when you threw your full sylladex at Makara, but you still have a beehouse full of it. It would be easy to collect more, and you will need it. It is time to stop being cautious and get your powers back, no matter how.

You really need to get your psionics back.

Yeah, time to be serious. Fuck consequences.

* * *

“Excuse me, do you have a moment?”

You turn, bottle of soda still halfway to your mouth, and gape at Lalonde. You think about it a moment, and then decide to ignore her and keep doing what you were doing. You finish the drink and throw the empty bottle into the garbage bin before taking a new one and a bag of grubsnacks. You began walking away and then thought better about it and went back to take another bottle. Maybe drinking more will finally kill this persistent headache.

“I collected your things after the incident in the War Room,” Lalonde continues talking, ignoring your efforts in ignoring her. “I wanted to give them back to you before, but I haven’t seen you in the alchemister room since then.”

_‘The incident’_ was probably Lalonde’s polite way to say, _‘the night that Makara went crazy and tried to kill us all, again’_. You have more important things to do than listening to her being politically correct. Getting back your things could be useful, though. If there is anything to save after throwing them at Makara’s face. There is a stab of pain in your sponge, stronger than usual, and you try to message it away with your free hand. You captchalogue your drinks and snacks and turn to her. 

“Sure, give them to me,” you order casually while you close your lookstubs for a moment and try to force the headache away for a single fucking second.

The human girl doesn’t say anything for a moment, and when you open your lookstubs, she is observing you with a calculating expression. Lalonde sometimes makes you nervous when she does this, as if she could read inside your mind and discover all and each way in which you are fucked up inside.

“Are you alright?” she asks with a neutral tone of voice.

“Headaches,” you shrug. “It happens all the time.”

“It seems to be bothering you more than usual,” she keeps pushing.

“What are you, my lusus?!” you snap at her, irritated, and try to reign your temper in when she sends you a frosty look. “Sorry, sorry. It’s getting worse lately and it’s frustrating.”

Lalonde doesn’t say anything in response, just stays there eyeing you coldly for a moment. Then, she begins walking away towards the loungeseat where Kanaya is reading a book. The common room is really starting to come around as a pretty nice space, now that you have a proper kitchen and some loungeplanks. The illumination is apparently still a problem due to the lack of a power source, and you are getting tired of the smell of burned candles.

Great, now if you want your things back you will need to beg for them, good job Sollux! 

It’s not like you really need that stuff, right? 

Surprisingly, Lalonde actually stops next to the big dining table and decaptchalogues all of your things over it. You walk closer and take a look. On the table you see your throwing stars, the broken flask where you used to keep mind-honey, a toolbox you forgot you had in there, a lot of cables and computer parts, and, fuck, your keyboard! You rush to the table and pick it up, immediately examining the damage. The board had been almost folded in two, and most of the keys had fallen out. The hardware is completely busted, it must have crashed to the floor after hitting Makara. You didn’t even remember you had it in your sylladex when you used it as a projectile. Not that you had any other choice.

“I also picked up some broken fragments, if you need them,” you hear Lalonde say. “Do you think you can repair it?”

“It would be easier to make a new one from scratch,” you explain absently, while you turn it around. “I have other keyboards but this one is the only with the translation software installed.”

“Oh,” the human says then. “Don’t you have another copy somewhere else? It would be a shame to lose it.”

You push things around, making space for the keyboard on the table and you sit in one of the empty chairs. The external connection port seems busted, but maybe you can connect it directly to the internal hardware. You reach for the toolbox.

“I have the original code in my main beeframe and a copy in a grubdisk,” you explain absently. “But I can’t use my bees here in the meteor and my husktop doesn’t have a grubdisk lector port.”

You select one of the smallest screwdrivers and begin taking away the screws in the cover of your keyboard. It has been a while since you did it without the help of your psionics, and the twists in the broken material had tightened some of the screws. You try to use both prongs to force the screwdriver to turn, but then the board moves with it. 

Sure! Why would the universe make things easy for once?!

Not that you can’t fix it anyway, of course.

Suddenly, the board becomes steady again. You raise your lookstubs and see that Lalonde is now sitting in a chair next to you, holding your board in place with a prong while with the other she is curiously poking at a broken grubdisk that you apparently still had in your sylladex. You don’t say anything, and focus on loosening the cursed screw. When you finally manage to take it out, the rest are easy work with Lalonde’s uncommented help. 

“Thanks,” you mutter when you take the board gently from her and begin checking the inside.

“You mentioned a beeframe,” comments the human. “Do you mean like actual bees? Flying insects that pollinate flowers and make honey?”

You stop for a moment at her question, surprised that she is apparently trying to begin a conversation. And that humans also have bees, apparently. You are used to working in silence, but she helped you before, so maybe you can indulge her curiosity for a bit.

“I forgot that humans don’t use organic technology,” you answer while frowning at the busted insides of your board. “That thing you were just poking at is a grubdisk. I was growing it for a game, but the code was incomplete and it died before I could fix the error.”

It looks like you might still be able to save the translation software. You reach into your sylladex and try to decaptchalogue your husktop, but a collapse warning stops you. Right, you have your drinks and food at the bottom of your sylladex, and if you don’t take those out before, your trees would collapse, making a mess. You decaptchalogue the snacks and drinks on the table, and finally you can reach your husktop without accidents. You decide to open another bottle of soda while your computer begins its safety and maintaining protocols. 

“Are you saying that your technology is alive?” you heard Lalonde ask.

You turn to her, stretching your legs and arms. Lalonde is now looking at you directly with clear interest in your answer, forsaking her previous aloof attitude. She is probably dying of curiosity right now.

“Not really, it has organic components, but those parts don’t have a brain or act as a proper functional organism,” you try to explain. “Think of it like a troll or human’s internal organ. Those are clearly organic, but they are not an alive creature on its own.”

“But, at a cellular scale, they are alive,” insists Lalonde.

“I guess, but would you consider your bellowsacs to be alive or a part of yourself?” you insist.

Your husktop is finally ready so you look around for a cable to connect it to your board. You always have some of them in your sylladex so it’s easier to find them on the table than trying to go through your sylladex again. Oh, there. You pick up a red-and-blue striped cable and plug it in your board and your husktop. Now you only need to wait for the transference to be complete before you can check which parts are missing. You hear Lalonde laughing softly and turn towards her, curious.

“What’s so funny?” you ask her.

“Nothing, it’s just that the Gift of Gab seems to make me understand new vocabulary without me even realising it,” she explains. “It is confusing sometimes because I hear a word and my mind processes another one.”

“Like what?” you insist.

“For example, a few weeks ago Terezi sent me in a text the word _‘bookhive’_ and I understood that she meant a _‘library’_ even when it was my first time reading that word,” Lalonde explains. “And just now you said _‘bellowsacs’_ and I heard that word but in my mind it translated as _‘lungs’._ It is, at the very least, ingenious.”

Oh. Yeah, that’s weird. It’s probably useful, though. If the humans weren’t God Tiers, it would have been a lot harder to communicate now that you are all trapped together. Wait, does this mean that they can also read binary code?

Oh, no, that’s it. If Strider can read binary better than you, you will definitely kill yourself!

Impossible, nobody can read binary better than you.

“What about programming codes? Like binary?” you ask, full of curiosity. “Those are a language too, can you read them?”

“I don’t think so,” answers the human with a pensive expression. “It may be a language but it’s not like I need it to communicate with someone.”

Right, if the badge only works in communicating with someone else, it doesn’t make any sense unless someone is actually talking in binary. Wait, there is a way to check. You smile and fully turn in your chair until you are completely facing the human. She notices and seems confused.

“What?” she asks.

“01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00100000 01001100 01001100 00100001” you say, making clear stops between each series of numbers, and then wait for her reaction.

Lalonde looks at you with huge lookstubs and her mouth half open. It’s the most amazed expression you have ever seen on her face so far. It’s clear that she was not expecting that, and, by her look, she did not understand what you just said. You begin laughing, elated.

Take this! You are still the best!

This means you will live a bit longer, then.

“Did you, did you just talk to me in binary code?” she whispers, with her lookstubs shining. “Without having to write it down or check it even once before? Just from the top of your head?”

“It’s not that hard and it was a short sentence,” you shrug, still feeling proud of yourself. “I learned it when I was four sweeps old. It’s the language my bees use.”

“That’s simply, and astonishingly amazing,” she says with delight in her voice. “And just for the record, I didn’t understand anything. Maybe if you write it down?”

Oh. Suddenly you feel a bit ashamed, it’s not like you are used to people honestly praising you. You feel your treacherous face warm up and you quickly turn, trying to hide your probably yellow cheeks. Looking around, you see a paper sheet and use the excuse of writing up the code to avoid Lalonde’s lookstubs. If it was someone else, you probably would be feeling awkward right now. After all, praising like that usually only happens between moirails. However, the humans are pretty ignorant of the protocol in these situations, so it was clearly not a pale insinuation. The fact that it had been the usually stoic and cold Lalonde who praised you, actually makes you feel quite proud of yourself. You know you are great but it’s always nice when other people praise you sincerely. It doesn’t happen frequently enough.

When was the last time someone praised you and meant it? Before you killed AA? She stopped doing it after that.

You did NOT kill her! And it was not her fault, she was a ghost after all, and it was hard enough for her to be interested in anything.

You pass the written code to Lalonde and eventually both of you focus on your things. She decaptchalogues a book and begins to read while peeking at Kanaya subtly from the top of it, and you work in fixing the missed parts in your software. Your headache begins bothering you again, now that you don’t have Lalonde to distract you, but you feel calmer than before. After a while, you have to wait for some code to compile and, in the meantime, you begin collecting your stuff. You are careful to leave those things you use more frequently for last, that way they would be at the bottom of your sylladex and it would be easier to reach them.

“Which kind of Fetch Modus are you using?” you hear Lalonde ask. “It looks similar to my Tree Modus.”

Unconsciously, you check her sylladex. It truly looks like a tree, with a single card at the top and two series of cards hanging from that one. It’s quite beautiful with its symmetry, and it certainly resembles yours. When she notices what you are doing, she captchalogues her book in an empty card. The book it’s automatically added in one of the two ‘branches’ causing the tree to lose its symmetry. Then, it automatically rebalances itself, moving the cards around into the most symmetrically balanced configuration. Oh, that’s actually nice.

“Mine’s a Bifurcation Modus,” you say.

To show her, you captchalogue a group of cables from the table and they are automatically divided into two captchalogue cards: one red and another blue. Visually it looks similar to her sylladex but without a root card. There are two series of cards in your favourite colours, each with your objects divided in half. Literally.

“It divides my objects in half between two cards or in two different objects, depending on the modus I have active,” you explain. “It’s highly variable. I usually use it in queue mode because I prefer how it looks, but it can also be used in array mode.”

“It sounds practical,” comments Lalonde. “When you say that it can divide an object in two, do you mean like a reverse alchemisation?”

“I guess, I can’t take the objects out when they are like that but I could probably obtain two different codes,” you reply, thinking of its applications for the first time since being in the game. “I don’t know for sure, actually, because I swapped my Modus with KK’s during the game.”

“Oh? And why did you do that?” the girl asks.

“The moron had an Encryption Modus that he was really bad at using,” you laugh. “He never managed to decodify the password to decaptchalogue anything, and it also transformed his cards into heavy safes that he could barely move.”

That Modus was actually a joke gift you gave to him sweeps ago, when he was complaining non-stop about his bad coding abilities. You sold it to him as a training exercise in coding, but in reality it had been another way to mess with him. You didn’t expect him to still be using it though. You had laughed so hard when you saw it, and he had been really angry when you finally told him that you had not been serious about the training when you gave it to him. It had been really funny, but you ended having to offer switching your sylladex with his for KK to stop screaming at you. It was not like lifting heavy stuff and decoding on the go was a problem for you. After you lost your psionics, however, KK simply came to you one night and offered to give you back your old Modus, without saying anything else about it. Once you get back your psionics, you will probably offer to switch them again.

IF you get your psionics back.

WHEN you get your psionics back.

“I see,” replies Lalonde, clearly understanding why you had to switch your Modus with KK’s again recently, but apparently deciding not to comment on that. “Actually, my Hubtop is a combination of my old laptop and a Hub that provides an infinite battery. I was thinking that if we can get the code of the Hub, we could solve our energy problem.”

You stare at her for a moment, processing her words. Oh, so the human’s technology doesn't come already with an infinite battery directly from the fabrication factory. Their technology is even more primitive than you thought it possible! Although in this case it could be useful. If this works, you will finally have the code for a source of energy that could be used to activate all the dead terminals in the meteor. And finally use electronics and proper lights and stop smelling burned candles everywhere.

“Yeah, it could work,” you answer. “Let’s try it.”

Lalonde nods and decaptchalogues a green weirdly looking husktop. Human technology is always strange in your lookstubs because it doesn’t have any organic components. That’s just wrong. You take the Hubtop when she offers it to you and you captchalogue it back into your sylladex. It quickly transforms into two cards with a half husktop in each.

“Oh, it didn’t work,” comments Lalonde with clear disappointment.

“Wait, I have to change the modus,” you explain.

You take your Fetch Modus’ configuration card and switch it from the option _‘Literal’_ to _‘Break-down’._ It takes a moment for it to adjust, but soon all of your captchalogued cards transform into the components of the items. In some cases, like in your pile of cables, it simply transforms the cards into two piles with half of the original content, but in other cases your items are divided into their raw materials. Luckily, Lalonde’s computer card transforms into a card with the same computer but in a different colour, and another card with a weird green box.

“That’s it!” she exclaims. “That’s the Hub I used!”

“Great,” you smile. “I can’t decaptchalogue only one half of an object, but we can write down the code and alchemize a new one.”

“Hopefully, it will not be too expensive,” Lalonde says while she begins writing down the code.

When she’s finished with it, you decaptchalogue her Hubtop again and return it to her. The human immediately captchalogues all her items and stands up from the table.

“I’m going to try it right away,” she exclaims, looking excited. “Are you coming?”

“Maybe later,” you say. “I want to finish this before.”

You point to your husktop, which has finally compelled your code and it’s showing where there had been lost data. Lalonde nods and tells you that she will let you know how it turns out. Then, she talks a bit with Kanaya, who is still sitting in the corner of the block, and finally leaves the block.

That had actually been a nice and productive conversation with Lalonde. You still don’t really like the humans, they are too different and strange, but the Seer of Light has been growing on you lately. She is intelligent, cunning and has an almost morbid and dark sense of humour. She is also always calm and composed, even when you are less than polite with her, and she actually seems to appreciate your skills. She reminds you a bit of AA, even her name can be reduced to LL, which is a nice, symmetric nickname. Her only failure so far is that she is human, and that would always put her in a lower category than the rest of you. Humans are weak, fragile creatures after all. You will have to be really careful during your duel, you don’t want to kill her by accident.

Your husktop beeps again, trying to call your attention, and you focus back on your coding.

* * *

There is still something wrong with the code, but you can’t fucking find where the damned problem is! Your lookstubs itch from looking at the screen for hours, your typing has become more and more aggressive, and this fucking headache is not letting you think!! Your husktop is giving another error sound, and you are tempted to throw it against the wall.

You shouldn’t have eaten all that mind-honey.

SHUT THE FUCK UP!!

You scan the lines of two-coloured coding. Red, blue, red, blue, red, blue, blue, red… There! You missed a red line. You type it in and activate the running option again. A loading bar appears on the screen while the computer is checking the code. Is it you or it is taking a lot longer than usual? The block had been quiet for hours since Kanaya left and while it had been nice for a while, is a bit boring now. You get up from your chair and walk to the fridge in the kitchen area, looking for something to eat. There are no more grubsnacks, but in the cupboard there are still some bags of the weird triangular orange snacks that Strider is always eating. It has always looked disgusting to you, but there is nothing else in there, so you can at least try it.

Now you have lowered yourself to eating human food, that’s a new low, even for you.

WHO CAAAAARES??!!

You reluctantly use your claws to open the bag and a small fog of orange dust gets expelled, making you sneeze. Uuurgh, is this thing even edible? It looks weird-shaped, smells even weirder, and it’s somehow dyeing your fingers orange. It doesn’t even have grubs on it! There is nothing moving in the bag, there is not even something alive in there! Will you get sick if you eat this?

Maybe it would be better if…

ONLY ONE WAY TO KNOW!!

You put the triangular shape fully inside your mouth and finally taste it. Bugwinded shit! This thing is AMAZING!! You take another piece, and another, and another. It’s so good!! You have never tasted something like this before!

OH, FUCK! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?!

You are exaggerating. It’s only food.

You reach the bottom of the bag too soon, so you take another one. This one has a red weirdly shaped thing drawn on the bag and some human words that you can’t understand. You shrug, and, when you open it, the food looks a bit more reddish than the one before. It also has an even stronger smell, but you don’t let that stop you. You eat the first piece, and the taste is even better! Stronger, spicier. It almost burns your chagrin tunnel, but that sensation makes you forget for a moment the constant pressure in your sponge, which is the best relief you have had in hours. Seriously, if the pain doesn’t go away you will end smashing your own nugbone in the first wall you see.

Wouldn’t that kill you?

AT LEAST THE PAIN WILL FINALLY STOP!!

There is a beeping sound, the wrong one, and you walk back to your husktop, furious, to check what the problem is now. You begin typing on your keyboard and realise too late that you are staining the keys with an orange-red colour.

“FUCK!” you yell in frustration.

You put your fingers in your mouth and look around for some tissue or paper to use but find nothing. Oh well, your shirt was already dirty so nobody will notice. You clean your prongs the best you can on your chest and use the bottom of it to wipe your keyboard. That leads to you keying weird letters in the middle of your code by accident, which you will have to erase afterwards.

OF FUCKING COURSE!! THE UNIVERSE IS TESTING YOUR PATIENCE TONIGHT!!

Do we still have some of that?

You finish erasing the typos and begin checking the code for the two-hundred time tonight. You are using only your left prong now; the right is reserved for bringing red-coloured triangular food to your mouth. Red, blue, red, blue, red, blue, red, red, blue, red… Wait, go back, there! A missing blue line this time. You decide to double check the full code before attempting to run it again because if it’s wrong AGAIN, you will definitely lose it!

When you are towards the middle of it you stop for a moment to reach the flask you have on the table. The human’s food is really good, but it makes you feel incredibly thirsty, and you ran out of soda ages ago. Luckily for you, you had a flask full of mind-honey in your sylladex. It’s not as refreshing as the soda was, but it’s still a drink, right? And its sweetness helps with the spicy food.

You shouldn’t be drinking mind-honey as if it was soda.

NOBODY ASKED YOU!

It’s wrong! It will mess with your psionics and you will end up hurting someone again.

SHUT UP!! BIG NEWS FOR YOU: THERE ARE NO PSIONICS TO MESS WITH ANYMORE!!

Yeah. No psionics, no danger. Also, you have been eating mind-honey for almost a perigee and still no effects. It’s time to accept that you will never get your power back and move on into more important shit. Like fixing this fucking code! And ignoring the sensation of someone crushing your sponge inside your thinkpan.

There, the code looks good now. You are 100% sure that it’s finally correct. It’s time to make it run again, so you activate the option and sit back in your chair, closing your lookstubs. The block is spinning around you and is making you feel a bit sick. Fuck, you should go to sleep. When the software is done, though. You drink a bit more and massage your thinkpan, trying to woo your headache away.

“What the fuck are you drinking, Sollux??!!” 

Ouch. Just what you needed, a fucking banshee yelling his way into the block when you already have the headache of the sweep! You open your lookstubs and see KK standing there with a furious expression in his face. Fuck, not now.

“Go away, KK,” you warn. “I’m not in the mood for you right now.”

Instead of doing what you asked, the other troll steals your flask and moves away from you when you swipe back at him. Now you are really getting furious.

“What the fuck, Vantas?!” you scream at him. “Give that back!”

“Is this what I think it is, Captor?!” he yells back at you. “Have you actually been drinking mind-honey all day as if it was Faygo and you were a fucking addict?!”

You get up from the chair and jump towards him, trying to take back your flask. It is YOURS!! And what you do with it is no one's business! KK keeps avoiding you while still yelling at you with the full capacity of his bellowsacs.

“YOU KNOW BETTER THAN ANYONE WHAT THIS SHIT DOES TO YOUR PSIONICS!!” he says. “ARE YOU FUCKING TRYING TO KILL US ALL, OR HAVE YOU COMPLETELY LOST YOUR MIND?!”

“FUCK YOU, VANTAS!!” you scream back, finally grabbing his sweater and trying to reach the flask. “I DON’T HAVE ANY PSIONICS ANYMORE SO IT DOESN’T FUCKING MATTER!!”

KK is pushing on your chest, trying to keep you away from the flask in his right prong, but you are taller and have larger arms than him. You push away at his face with your right prong and try to reach the flask with the other.

“GIVE ME BACK THE FLASK, KARKAT!”

“NO!!”

And with that, the fucker throws the glass flask to the floor, where it crashes into a million pieces, spreading all the mind-honey on the ground. For a moment, you can’t believe he actually did that. Does he have any FUCKING idea of how long it took you to collect all that mind-honey?! And how hard is it to control your bees without your psionics?! He didn’t have any right to do that!

FUCKER!! KILL HIM!! KILL HIM RIGHT NOW!!

What?! No!!

You feel all of the frustration and anger accumulated in the last few perigees piling up and making you see red. KK has gone too far this time! He had no right! He has been a pain in your ass for too long! You will… you will…

**_KK is looking at you with huge, scared lookstubs, red blood falling on them from the hit in his thinkpan. Red and blue electricity is keeping him against a wall in the air, at least two floors up from the ground. He is trying to say something, but only a painful sound escapes his lips. His lookstubs finally roll back, and his body goes limp. He is clearly unconscious. Then, your psionics disappear and he falls and falls, until you can’t see him anymore._ **

**_You look at your glowing hands. What have you done?!_ **

You are suddenly back in the common block, with your prong grabbing the neck of KK’s sweater. Oh, no. That was a Doom vision, like the one you had before Makara’s attack. And in this one you had your psionics back and were hurting KK. Last time, your vision almost became a reality, so, would this mean that this one will too? An excruciating pain crushes your sponge just then, as if the universe was answering your question.

You let KK go and push him away from you. You check your prongs, there are no psionics in there yet, but you can almost feel them under your skin. The last time you had this sensation was when your psionics went out of control. There is something restraining them for now, but you don’t know how long it will last. Maybe the vision won’t happen immediately, but if it is predestined to, how are you going to stop it this time? It’s not like you can stop having psionics, right? Oh, fuck. You do actually have psionics, you have not lost them yet! And you have been drinking mind-honey compulsively for the last who knows how many hours!

FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!

You were warned but you didn’t listen.

You need to go, if you are going to have an overload, you can’t stay here. There has to be somewhere you can go to avoid hurting someone or destroying the meteor. The surface! At least there you can try to direct the energy outside or directly jump away from the meteor. If you are meant to get your powers back, you can always fly back in later if needed. Another painful cramp makes you let out a groan and forces you to hold your thinkpan.

“Sollux?” 

Fuck, the pain is getting worse and something tells you that that it’s a bad sign. Also, KK is still too close to you. You have to get away from him, you have to get away now!

“Don’t follow me!” you yell at him and begin running towards the transportalizer.

“What the fuck, Sollux?!” you heard KK scream. “What do you mean by that?! Where are you going?!”

Fuck, fuck, fuck. What was the quickest way to get to the surface, again? As far as you know, you can go there through Terezi or Gamzee’s sections. Terezi’s route is shorter but she may have her section blocked now. That means that you have to go through all of Gamzee’s area if you want to get outside. Your sponge is beginning to hurt at regular intervals, like a pulse. Fuck, you hope you get there in time!

Come on, come on, COME ON!

Please, please, please.

You step on the pedestal, teletransporting to the bottom of the Stairs Hall. Fuck! If you could fly, you would get to the top in a moment, but like this you will have to run up all these fucking stairs. You begin running again, and you are only on the first set of stairs when someone teletransports into the hall behind you. KK is following you!

“What is happening, Sollux?” you hear him ask but don’t stop to explain. “Are you hurt?”

“Stay away from me, KK!” you yell with the few air you have. Fuck, you hate stairs.

“No fucking way!” he insists. “I’m not going to leave you alone! Something is clearly wrong with you!”

Fuck, fuck, fuck. Not now, KK, please. You are only on the second floor when a dizzy spell forces you to close your lookstubs and lean on the wall for a moment. When you open your lookstubs again, the world is slightly red and blue. Oh no, no, no, no. It’s really happening right now! You push away from the wall and force yourself to run up the last group of stairs.

You won’t make it.

You will! You have to!

You are already in the same level as the transportaliser to the Cross Hall. You probably won’t make it to the surface in time, but if you can get into an empty section maybe nobody will get hurt. In that precise moment, Strider appears on the platform, transportalising into the hall and blocking your way.

Move!

Get out of the way, please!

“Waaa, dude, where is the fire?” is the first thing he says when he sees you running towards him.

“Get out of my way, Strider!” you yell at him.

“No! Don’t let him go, Strider!” you hear KK screaming from behind you. “STOP HIM!”

The human looks confused for a moment, but he clearly decides to do what KK says because he steps back in front of the transportaliser, blocking your way. He has both his prongs raised, as if he were trying to calm a wild beast. The pulse in your sponge is getting stronger and faster, and, for the first time, you feel something caving. It feels like a dam about to break and let whatever is inside go free. Which are probably your psionics and the dam might be what has been giving you headaches lately. How had you not noticed this before?

“Ok, why don't we try to talk about whatever has you running away like Red Hood from the Wolf?” the human says. “What’s wrong?”

“THERE IS NO TIME FOR THIS!” you yell again. “I NEED TO GO!”

**_KK’s bloodied body floating in the air, restrained by your psionics. KK’s looking at you, horrified and scared. KK’s unconscious body falling down._ **

“Sollux!” 

You turn and see that KK is almost on the same floor as you, looking at you from the stairs with the same horrified and scared expression that in your vision. You feel the dam breaking the moment you try to warn your friend away again.

“I told you to STAY AWAY!!” you scream.

There is something breaking inside your sponge. It’s like an explosion is happening inside of your thinkpan, pushing against your nugbone and demolishing your bones into dust before doing the same to the rest of your body. Everything hurts. From the top of your horns to the bottom of your strut pods. You have your lookstubs closed and you are screaming and screaming without control. This is it; you are dying, you HAVE to be dying, it’s not possible to contain that much pain and not shatter.

And then, suddenly, something from inside you is released and begins covering your body, easing the pain in each bone, tissue, and organ, and expanding even further. Suddenly, you are bigger than your body, you are more than bones, muscle, and skin. You are energy, unstoppable and exhaustible and you are EVERYWHERE. The pain disappears completely, and, in its place, you are feeling great, full of energy and with a pleasant sensation, filling you to the point of bursting. You open your lookstubs and the world is alive again, brighter and vivid with red and blue tones. A happy laugh escapes you. You realise then that you are floating in midair, with your thinkpan arched back and that your psionics are surrounding you.

Then, you lower your thinkpan and see KK being crushed against the wall in front of you, bleeding and suspended three floors up in the air only by your psionics. He is trying to reach you with a hand, his lookstubs full of horror and fear, and he seems to have difficulties in breathing. He looks at you with huge, scared lookstubs for a moment, red blood falling into them, but soon they roll back, and his body goes limp.

Oh no.

LET HIM GO!!

You bring your psionics back into your body as fast as you can. It’s harder than usual to restrain them, but you manage, falling down to the ground on your knees. However, the moment the psionics around KK disappear, he falls. 

NO! GRAB HIM AGAIN!

no, no, no.

There is something moving next to you, but you are too busy panicking to notice. You try to reach KK again, but you can’t see him anymore. You try to get closer to the border, attempting to make visual contact again, but you are too late. There is a loud sound downstairs, the sound of something crashing to the floor. 

no, no, KK...

You have done it again.

it didn’t… it wasn’t…

You did and it was. You were warned. This is your fault.

You look at your still glowing hands. What have you done?! Why did you decide to eat the fucking mind-honey?! Have you not learned anything from your past mistakes?!

it wasn’t supposed to…

You knew the risks, but you did it anyway. You wanted this to happen.

no! 

You killed AA exactly in the same way.

that’s not...

And now you have killed KK.

Yellow tears are falling into your prongs and are being evaporated when they enter in contact with your psionics. You have killed KK. You have killed your best hatefriend. You have killed someone you hated. Someone you had hoped that one night would become your kismesis. Instead, you have killed him. And this time, there are no extra lives.

You are despicable.

you are not...

You are a murderer.

no, you...

Didn’t mean to do it? Does it matter? KK is dead because of you.

The tears don’t stop, and soon you are sobbing on the ground. You have killed someone you cared for, again.

it’s… it’s true… it is your fault… you wanted your psionics back and you didn’t care about the risk.

You got what you wanted.

you finally have your psionics back. 

You only had to kill KK in the process.

are you happy now?

“I’m so sorry, KK” 


	7. time loop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone,  
> I want to warn you that this chapter is narrated from the POV of a character with internalised homophobia. Also I want to clarify that it's not my personal opinion and that it's part of the character's development.  
> With that said, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

An hour ago, if asked which troll in the meteor was the weakest, Dave would have doubted between Sollux Captor and Karkat Vantas. Now, however, while being compressed against the wall with red-and-blue energy, he knew better. It had come out of nowhere, one moment Captor was folding on himself on the floor, screaming in agony, and the next a burst of energy exploded out from his body (almost like in an anime, which would be rad if it happened to someone else). He barely had the time to decaptchalogue his sword and use it as a barrier between the weird energy and his own body. It had not stopped him from being thrown against a wall, but at least he could maintain the pressure off of him enough to breathe (if he didn’t end cutting his own head off with his sword because holy shit, that thing had a lot of strength, thanks Bro for all your training, seriously).

Dave raised his eyes and saw that Karkat had not been as lucky as him. The troll had been thrown away against the wall on his left and now he was suspended in the air three floors up from the ground with that bicoloured energy. He was being compressed against the wall, there was blood falling from his hair onto his eyes and he seemed to have problems breathing (unless trolls were normally blue on the face, but he doubted it). It was clear that he had hit his head when he was thrown away and the pressure of the energy was probably closing up his lungs. Fuck, if things kept up like this, Karkat would probably die (and that would be a permadeath, no ‘try again’ bs for him).

Someone began laughing and Dave turned to the source of the sound. Captor was floating in the air, in the middle of the red-and-blue electrical-looking energy (how had the trolls called it? psionics?). His dirty shirt was floating a bit around him; his arms were opened huge and his head thrown back, with his eyes literally glowing red and blue like police car lights (holy shit, that was totally mad final boss material here). Dave’s blood ran cold at that vision. He had thought that Captor was a cool troll, he was a hacker after all, and he had an ironic and sarcastic vibe in him that Dave totally approved (and he was always mocking Karkat which was funny to see). But here he was now: suffocating his friend and laughing about it. Definitely, all trolls were mad crazy. 

Just then, Captor’s head lowered, and he seemed to freeze when he saw Karkat against the wall (yeah dumbass, what were you expecting?). Immediately after that, the energy pushing against Dave’s sword disappeared and he fell to the floor (wait, what about Karkat?). He turned in time to see him falling down, unconscious and bleeding (fuck! that’s at least a fifteen meters fall!). Without thinking better of it, Dave jumped after him, using his flying abilities to push himself faster and faster towards the troll, but the ground was getting close too fast (he will die, dude!). Just when he thought he wouldn’t make it, two Daves appeared on the ground, one of them with a net that he quickly threw to the other Dave, extending it between them just in time (yeah! Strider fireman edition to the rescue!). Dave realised then two things: Karkat was probably going to be fine, and he was flying straight to the floor in what was almost a kamikaze move (mayday! mayday! abort! abort!).

He tried to stop himself and fly back up, but he was going too fast to stop in time (time for plan B!). He diverted himself to the side, trying to make an emergency landing (like in plane crashing movies, dude!), but instead, he crashed directly into one of the other Daves. They were thrown to the side and up, both of them trying to stop their momentum in a mess of entangled limbs until they finally ended up crashing into one of the open staircases.

Dave closed his eyes with the impact, but he opened them quickly after that. His side hurt, he probably had scratches all over his arms, and he was a bit dizzy, but he was fine. He incorporated easily and realised that his iGlasses had fallen out and were resting in a pool of red blood (oh fuck, not blood!). He touched his body all over, but he didn’t find any cut. However, when he turned to the other Dave to check him, what he saw left him petrified.

Other-Dave was sprawled out on the stairs in a weird position, still, and with his head bleeding (I warned you about stairs, bro!). There was blood in the corner of one of the steps in the staircase, and the pool under Other-Dave was growing scarily fast. Dave looked at his doppelgänger, petrified, but he didn’t try to wake him up. It was clear that Other-Dave had cracked his head open with the stairs (I warned you dog!). He was dead, Dave had seen so many dead Daves to not be able to recognise it immediately. Fuck.

“He will be fine,” he heard someone with his own voice say. “He will revive.”

Dave turned towards the other Other-Dave and saw him lowering Karkat carefully to the floor, resting on the troll’s side. Karkat was still unconscious but he seemed to be ok, or at least not worse than before.

“Are you sure?” he asked, wary of looking at Dead-Dave again (too many Dead-Daves!).

“Yeah, I went through it, too,” explained Other-Dave. “You would have had a Heroic death but his was simply stupid. Wrong place at the wrong time.”

Oh. Right, dying after trying to save someone else was probably more heroic than being pushed away by yourself and dying after hitting your head on the stairs. He looked at Dead-Dave one last time, wondering how long it would take for him to revive (wait, if he revives, he is not a doomed Dave, right?). Seeing himself in a pool of blood was too much for him, though, so he grabbed his iGlasses and floated back to the ground where Other-Dave and Karkat were (better ignore the dead-you in the room, yep, if you don’t see it, it isn’t there). He used his cape to clean his iGlasses and put them back on.

“Will Karkat be okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, he will wake up in a few minutes,” answered Other-Dave. “We need to stop his bleeding, though. Here, help me out.” 

Dave knelt down next to the troll and held him steady while Other-Dave used strips of his own cape to make a makeshift bandage around Karkat’s head. It was lucky that his horns were so tinny, it would have been a lot harder to work the bandages around them otherwise.

“So, from how far in the future are you?” he asked.

“Not too far, you will get there today,” answered Other-Dave.

“Oh, closed time loop then?” insisted Dave.

“Double closed time loop,” was his response.

Oh, right, Dead-Dave was from the future too (fuck, that means that you will be him later, so you are going to die soon). After seeing so many alternate-Daves dying, he should probably be accustomed to it by now but, instead, every time it was as terrifying as the previous one (not terrifying, cool dudes are not scared of anything, it is only... annoying, yeah, that’s better). At that precise moment, Dead-Dave’s body began to shine and float a bit in the air. It was the first time Dave was seeing himself revive (it’s actually kind of cool), mostly because last time he had been the one dying in a freaking huge green explosion, and he couldn’t exactly see himself reviving. It was the first time that a Dave had died since ascending to God Tier, and it had been a few months since then (a record Guinness for sure). Still, it was kind of weird seeing another himself coming back to life like that. 

There was movement on the top of the stairs, and a face with bicoloured shining eyes peeked down from the border of the third floor. Captor. Fuck, was the guy still crazy? Would he attack them again? (better get ready dude, his weird magic had a madly strong punch).

“What the fuck?” he heard the troll say.

“Oi Captor!” called Other-Dave. “Come down already!”

“Dude!” he called out to Other-Dave. “What are you doing?! He just attacked us!”

“Relax,” shrugged Other-Dave. “He is cool, trust me.”

By norm, Dave tended to trust his other selves, all of them were him after all and those coming from the future had more experience than him. It was for this reason that he didn’t immediately jump to attack Captor when the troll let himself fall out of the border, floating slowly to the ground with red-and-blue electricity sparkling around him (mad-villain vibes at max, dude!). It was a close call though; he didn’t trust the troll at all. He didn’t trust anyone really (well, he trusted Rose, John and Jade for sure, and maybe Karkat because he was clearly harmless), and he was especially reluctant to trust those that had already attacked him at least once.

“What?!” Captor exclaimed when he landed a few meters away from them. “Strider? Why are there two of you?”

“Time shenanigans,” he and Other-Dave answered at the same time.

“And it’s three of us, actually,” added Other-Dave, pointing at Dead-Dave still in the process of reviving.

Other-Dave finished with the bandage and stood up, turning to Captor. Dave stayed on the floor, still holding Karkat and wary of the other troll. He didn’t seem to want to attack them anymore, but it could be a trick (he already attacked you once, don’t trust him, dude, don’t let your guard down!).

“Oh, fuck!” exclaimed Captor in a horrified voice. “Did I kill him, too?!”

“Naaa, dude, you didn’t kill anyone,” replied Other-Dave. “That Dave died because of a stupid mistake, but he will get back to life soon.”

Captor turned back to Other-Dave (what is he wearing? that’s a nasty shirt and you know about that, you are the king of nasty shit).

“But KK is…” said the troll.

Just then, Karkat let go a pained groan and moved a bit. He hadn’t fully recovered consciousness yet, but he was close. Captor’s attention instantly focused on Dave and Karkat, then, and he moved a step in their direction. Dave held Karkat’s body closer to him, wary of the other’s reaction.

“Stay the fuck away from us!” he warned.

The troll seemed to not hear him; his eyes were focused on Karkat's body with a weird expression (wtf? why is he looking like that now? he seems almost sad!). 

“KK is still alive?” Captor asked with a hopeful tone of voice. “Really?”

There was suddenly the noise of the transportaliser on the top floor being activated, and the heads of Kanaya and Rose appeared over the border.

“Dave?” he heard Rose call him (thank god she is fine). “Or should I say Daves?”

“KARKAT!” Kanaya screamed.

The shining troll jumped down to the staircase a floor lower, and from there directly to the ground. Rose was floating down slower, looking around and probably analysing the situation (not the best moment for shrink bullshit, Rose!). Kanaya rushed towards him, kneeling on the floor so fast that she raised imaginary dust in a cartoonish way, and she took Karkat away from his hands before he could even blink. 

She checked the bandage in her friend’s head, and sniffed at it, probably detecting the smell of blood (urg, weird). It was clear she didn’t like what she found because she let out a scaring snarl and Dave had to force himself to not decaptchalogue his sword (don’t do it dude! she is probably not going to attack you and she is too fast anyway).

“Who was the one that hurt Karkat?!” Kanaya demanded with an angry voice, showing her freaky long teeth (fuck, vampire alert!)

Dave tried to answer, but then he felt a pull in his senses. It was something he had felt before, a kind of warning that he had to go somewhen else right now or the timeline would be really messed up. He instinctively knew that he had to complete the first time loop.

“Fuck, I have to go back and save Karkat right now!” he said in a rush while he made his timetables appear. “Other-Daves will explain what just happened.”

“Wait!”

Dave ignored her, focused on the red line of his timeline and with a wrist gesture, he began turning his timetables backwards. When he reached the precise moment, five minutes in the past when he had seen the two other-Daves appear before, he stopped the timetables. He opened his eyes and he had just time to put his timetables away before catching one end of the net that Other-Dave was throwing at him. He extended it, making sure it was stable, and focused on the falling Karkat. They moved a bit, adjusting the net in the correct position, and managed to catch the troll, stopping him from crashing to the floor (yeah! Karcatch of the day! Catch them all!). Other-Dave rushed to hold the troll better, and it was then when Dave remembered what happened last time, just after saving Karkat (oh, fuck!). He raised his head and saw Past-Dave almost on top of him.

“Oh, fuck!” he exclaimed.

Dave tried to fly away but it was too late. Past-Dave crashed into him, sending both of them up and to the side in an uncontrollable spiral in the air. They floundered around in the air, trying to stabilise themselves until they crashed into something. Dave felt something sharp hit him hard in the back of his head and everything turned black. 

When he opened his eyes again, he was floating in the air with his full God Tier clothes on, hood included (fuck no! he hated that hood!), and Kanaya and Rose were already in the room. Rose seemed glad to see him but Kanaya was kneeling on the floor, holding Karkat against her voluptuous chest (wow, good job, dude!), and screaming at Captor. Other-Dave was still between them, with his sword down and quiet. Dave threw away his horrible hood and saw that Captor was getting closer to Kanaya and Karkat (oh, fuck no!). Dave’s body reacted almost by instinct. He flash stepped until he was next to Captor with his sword threatening his neck.

“Back off!” he screamed to the bicoloured troll. “Haven’t you done enough already?”

“Wooo, cool down dude!” he heard Other-Dave say.

Captor only blinked before looking at him, surprised. He seemed almost relieved to see him, and apparently not scared at all of having a sword inches from his neck (wtf? totally crazy!).

“You really revived,” the troll said. “That’s good.”

“I’m immortal, remember?” Dave replied. “It will take more than a hit to the head to kill me now, which is kind of lucky because stairs are fucking dangerous.”

“I warned you about stairs, bro,” added Other-Dave. “Told you, dog!”

Dave almost smiled at that reference, it was always super cool to chill out with other-Daves, but he was kind of in the middle of something here (don’t let your guard down, bro!). He kept his stand, his sword firmly in position.

“Don’t move an inch, dude,” he repeated. “I had my full of crazy-murder trolls lately.”

That seemed to finally get a reaction from Captor. He bared his teeth with an angry sound, the light in his squinted eyes seemed to become brighter, and there was a spark of blue and red electricity jumping between his bigger horns (waaaah, dude! that’s dangerous! and cool! but mostly dangerous!).

“Don’t you fucking compare me to Makara, human!” warned the troll. “I’m NOT a crazy murderer!”

“How do you explain this situation then, Sollux?” he heard Kanaya asking from behind him in a cold voice. “Are you implicating that you didn’t attack Karkat?”

Dave was expecting the other troll to react badly to that accusation, maybe trying to attack him or Kanaya, or both (get ready dude, here he comes!). Instead of that, Captor seemed to deflate, and he actually dropped to the floor. The sparks stopped and even his facial expression transformed from anger to something that resembled guilt (is he actually sorry about it? for real?).

“No, I did it,” he admitted. “It was my fault, I’m the one that hurt KK.”

Kanaya let out a furious, warning snarl that reminded Dave more of an animal than a human. Troll. Human-like thing. Whatever.

“So, you confess your murderous intentions,” declared Kanaya. “You fully know that by law I have the right to cull you for this, Sollux!”

“What?!” exclaimed Other-Dave. “Wait a minute!”

“You are not his moirail, Kanaya!” replied Sollux, angry again. “Not yet at least!”

Oh, that was one of the quadrant things, right? The platonic-bros thing? Why were they suddenly talking about this shit? (oh man, trolls are really obsessed with quadrants)

“And how would you know that?” insisted Kanaya.

“KK would have told me if he had a quadrantmate!” replied Captor. 

“Mmmm, guys?” was trying to meddle Other-Dave (dude! don’t do that! don’t get involved in quadrant shit!)

“Why would he have told you anything?!” yelled back Kanaya. “You are not his matesprit, and definitely not his moirail! Kismesissitude doesn’t imply that he has to tell you anything!”

Nops, Dave was definitely not getting involved in that. He was almost tempted to abscond the fuck out of it, but he was still trapped between the two trolls, with his sword in Captor’s neck (dude, they are ignoring you, nobody would notice if you flash step the fuck out of here). He really wanted to drop his sword, and probably run out of the hall or something like that, but that would mean letting his guard down in front of someone dangerous (nops! suck it up bro!).

“Not that is your fucking business but it’s not like that!” replied Captor. “We are only hatefriends! KK is my fucking best hatefriend!”

Ugh, should he back away? He was obviously making a fool of himself threatening someone that was completely ignoring him. And his arms were beginning to ache from keeping them in the same position for too long, maybe it would be fine if he let them down? (don’t! it’s a trick! don’t show weakness! Bro used the same trick sometimes, remember?).

“Do you frequently attack your hatefriends, Sollux?” Kanaya asked with cold sarcasm. “Will you attack me next?”

Captor seemed to deflate again, as if the other troll’s words had activated a shift or a button or something like that. He walked a couple of steps back (finally! now you can lower your arms, slowly though! keep your cool!), all the angry energy disappeared, and he seemed to shrink into himself a bit. Dave used the moment to look around, trying to find a better place to be than between two trolls arguing about fucking quadrants (anything but quadrants, please!).

“I…” Captor tried to say but apparently couldn’t.

“Was this a premeditated attack or spurned in a pitch moment?” kept asking Kanaya. “If you and Karkat needed an auspice you should have told us before it got to this point!”

Oh fuck, there was the last quadrant. The fact that Dave knew enough of the troll’s shitty romance nightmare stuff by now to recognize those terms was scary. He should stop listening to Karkat's random vents about quadrants (he is so funny when he is ranting, though, sometimes it’s hard to not provoke him). He looked to the side and saw that Rose was pretty invested in the conversation (of course she is). However, she was on the side of the room instead of in the middle of that mess like him, so maybe he could move there and nobody would notice.

“It’s not like that,” insisted Captor in a more subdued voice. “We are not kismesis, only hatefriends.”

Nops, he definitely didn’t want to hear anything else. He looked to the side and saw Other-Dave looking as uncomfortable as him. Only inside though, he was too cool to show that feeling in his face. Almost as cool as Dave but not quite. Yeah, that made total sense.

“Oh!” he heard someone else exclaim softly and realised that it had been Rose (fuck, she is probably psychoanalysing everything).

“It wouldn’t be the first time that unrequited pitch feelings led to unnecessary murder,” insisted Kanaya. “We already lost one of us in that way.”

Yep, that was it, Dave flash stepped the fuck out of there and stopped next to Rose. His ecto-sister looked at him for a moment, she smiled at him but focused back on the debate almost immediately (nice to know that I’m less important than troll romantic drama, Rose!). At least now he was not in the middle of that.

“I’m not Serket!” exclaimed Captor, furious again (fuck dude, chose one! angry or sad! you are making me dizzy!). “I would never intentionally hurt KK! Not seriously!”

Nobody said anything for a moment, everyone aware of the contradiction between Captor’s words and the unconscious troll in the room. He had hurt him a few minutes ago, after all. Dave was vastly ignoring the fact that Captor had not denied having ‘unrequited pitch feelings’, whatever that meant. Yep, that didn’t happen at all (no homo, dude!).

“So, what I take from this interesting debate is that you didn’t hurt Karkat intentionally?” Rose said, for the first time intervening in the conversation.

“Yeah,” answered Other-Dave (why is he still between them?). “It was an accident.”

“Wtf, dude?!” Dave protested. “He attacked us with his weird powers! You were there as much as I was! I died because of him!”

“You died because you stupidly jumped after Karkat in an attempt to save him,” replied Other-Dave, walking towards Dave (I see what you are doing here, bro! smooth abscond!). “You are lucky you didn’t have a Heroic dead, dumbass!”

“YOU DID WHAT?!” yelled Rose then, fuck, she was angry (ignore her! if you don’t look at her, she is not there!). “DAVE!”

“You are me, idiot!” Dave screamed to Other-Dave. “You did exactly the same!”

“I have grown since then,” insisted Other-Dave.

“You are from only a few hours in my future!” insisted Dave. “You haven’t learned a shit!”

Dave was now facing Other-Dave, both of them angry under their respective cool masks. Other-Dave was going to say something but then he stopped himself as if he had a revelation.

“Fuck, we are doing the Vantas thing, again,” he said. “I’m doing it for a second time, fuck!”

“Wait, doing the what?!” asked Dave, confused.

“The Vantas thing!” insisted Other-Dave, “You know! That thing when he argues with his past and future selves in stupid memos!”

Oh, fuck! He is right, you have been doing that. Ouch, that was stupid and totally uncool for your part. For both your parts. For both of you? Shit, still sounds weird. Whatever.

“Fuck, you are right,” Dave said. “That’s so unprofessional of us, so non-Strider. Let’s not do it again, ever.”

“Sure, bro,” Other-Dave agrees and raises a fist. “Brofist pump?”

“Brofist pump!” Dave smiled and fist pumped Other-Dave, all anger forgotten.

As always, all other-Daves were cool and right. This future-Dave, in particular, had said that Captor was not that bad, so Dave would have to believe him. It would be uncool to not do so (fuck yeah! you are the coolest dude in the room, as always!).

“That was interesting,” Rose commented then, pretending to take notes in an invisible notebook. “How do you feel about this interaction, Dave, and Dave?”

“Rose!” complained Dave and Other-Dave at the same time.

Their ectobiological sister only smiled and mimicked putting her non-existent notebook away. Then, she turned towards Captor (oh fuck, Kanaya and Captor had seen your uncool moment!), just when a weak voice was heard in the room.

“Kanaya?” whispered Karkat. “Ouch, fuck, my pan hurts.”

Dave turned to him, a mocking comment ready to go (that’s what she said, dude!), but the moment he took his eyes off Captor there was an increase of blue and red light in the room (oh, fuck no!). Dave turned quickly towards the troll again and saw the troll levitating in the air with his weird magical powers and his eyes shining like fucking flashlights. He almost jumped back in the middle to stop him, but then he realised that the troll was smiling huge and that he had something yellowish in the corner of his freaky eyes (are those tears? yellow tears? wtf?).

In his moment of doubt, the troll flew past him and Other-Dave, directly towards where Karkat and Kanaya were on the floor (he is going to attack them! stop him!). Dave was preparing himself to flash step there again when he felt the hand of Other-Dave grabbing his arm.

“It’s okay,” he said. “He is cool, just look.”

Dave turned to look at the three trolls, confused. He saw that Kanaya was standing up in an aggressive position, putting herself between Karkat and the other troll, while Captor was just floating in front of her with his hands raised in a placating gesture and clearly trying to check on Karkat from there. He didn’t seem to want to fight with the vampire troll (yeah, I wouldn’t either), but Kanaya was not joking around and she actually had her chainsaw out. Then, Karkat began screaming.

“What the fuck are you doing, Kanaya?!” he said. “Stop that! It’s Sollux! He is our friend!”

“He attacked you, Karkat.” replied the troll girl in a cold voice. “He tried to kill you.”

“I…” Captor tried to say.

“No, he didn’t!” interrupted Vantas. “Of course he didn’t! I’m really sorry for saying this to you Kanaya but, have you lost your mind?! Of course Sollux didn’t attack me!”

The girl seemed confused for a moment. She turned towards her friend, throwing quick glances to Captor, probably checking that he was still there (better if Captor doesn’t move, Kanaya is scary fast!)

“Karkat,” she complained. “We felt his psionics even when we were in the bookhive, and your head…”

“It was my fault,” declared Karkat.

“What the fuck, KK?!” complained Captor (no, dude! shut up! don’t piss her off even more!). “It was my psionics, so it was my fault!”

“Shut your stupid talking hole, Captor!” insisted Karkat. “If I say that it was my fault, it was my fault! You don’t get to take the responsibility from me, asshole!”

Then Karkat wobbled a bit, almost falling back to the floor. Kanaya moved quickly to grab him but Captor’s psionics were faster. Red and blue electricity surrounded Karkat and raised him a bit from the ground, holding him in the air until Kanaya reached him (oh, he actually helped Karkat, he is really not attacking them). 

“KK!” yelled Captor, floating closer until he was almost over the two trolls.

“Karkat!” exclaimed the girl. “Are you fine?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine Kanaya,” insisted the short troll. “A bit dizzy.”

“You probably have a concussion, Karkat,” intervened Rose, taking a few steps toward them. “You got a strong hit to your head, you need rest.”

Karkat raised his eyes, probably surprised that there were people in the room that he hadn’t noticed yet. It was clear by his facial expression the exact moment he realised that there were two Dave Striders in the room instead of only one.

“What the fuck?!” he yelled. “Strider?! Why are there two of you?! Is this going to last? Are we stuck with two stupid assholes instead of one?! As if one douchebag wasn’t enough!”

Dave interchanged a look with his doppelgänger, raising his eyebrow in a silent question (are you thinking what I’m thinking? sure, bro!). Then, both of them turned towards Karkat with their most inexpressive expression.

“Sup, Karkles!” they said at the same time.

“The fuck!” exclaimed the troll, jumping a bit. “Don’t do that! It’s creepy!”

Ooooh boy, that was a funny reaction. Dave forced himself to keep his expression neutral and sent another silent signal to Other-Dave (twin thing? twin thing, bro!)

“Is that…” he began to say.

“...the way…” continued Other-Dave in perfect synchrony.

“...to thank…” continued Dave.

“...your saviours?” ended Other-Dave.

“Rude, dude!” they added together in the end.

Karkat’s eyes went from Dave to Other-Dave in a confused fashion, following their speaking pattern, and ended up with a mix of furious and confused expression on his face. It was hilarious. And apparently, he wasn’t the only one that thought that, because Captor began laughing in the background. Dave smiled at his reaction (okay, he is definitely a cool dude).

“What… how… why…?” tried to say Karkat, apparently speechless for the first time since Dave met him, before compensating with a long series of weird words, said too fast for Dave to understand (probably blasphemies, dude has a dirty mouth). After that, he grabbed his own head again and let out a painful groan. 

“Okay, that is enough,” declared Kanaya, grabbing the other troll’s arm. “You clearly need rest, Karkat.”

“I’m fine, Kanaya,” repeated the troll. “It’s only a headache.”

“You have a bleeding wound on your thinkpan, Karkat,” insisted her. “It could get infected. I would like to check it personally to be sure that it doesn’t get worse.”

For some reason, Karkat turned a bit red at that offer. Weird. He touched his forehead and seemed to notice his bandage for the first time.

“Oh,” he mused. “That explains the headache.”

“Kanaya, make sure that he doesn’t sleep for a while,” instructed Rose. “It’s probably only a mild concussion, but if he suddenly becomes confused, sleepy or incoherent, please let me know.”

“Thanks Rose, I will do as you say,” Kanaya thanked her. “Let’s go, Karkat. You will rest better in my respiteblock. And Sollux, I will deal with you later.”

Ouch, that sounded threatening as hell. Captor didn’t seem to care, though, because he only shrugged.

“Do I have a say on this?” asked Karkat with an exasperated but weirdly fond tone of voice.

“Not at all,” replied the taller girl.

“Okay, I will go,” he accepted. “Just, give me a moment, would you?”

Kanaya nodded and let him go reluctantly when Karkat pushed away from her and walked decisively towards Captor. The bicoloured eyed troll was standing a few steps away from him, for once standing on the floor instead of floating in mid-air. He was a head taller than Karkat (which was not hard because he was even taller than Dave, and Karkat was really tiny), but he was hunched over himself in a way that made him seem shorter than what he actually was. The troll was also picking absently at the bottom of his shirt, to the point that he had already made a couple of holes in it with his freakishly long nails (nails? claws? they certainly look like claws). Dave was not an expert in shrink stuff like Rose, but even he could see that Captor was acting as self-conscious and nervous as a child caught with his hand in the jar of pies (or was it a jar of cookies? it was never clear in the TV reality shows).

“Hey KK,” he heard Captor saying in a low voice when Karkat stopped in front of him.

“Hey yourself, fuckass,” replied Karkat. “There is no way to say this with dignity, so I’m going to say it how it is and then we will forget it ever happened: I’m sorry.”

Wait, what? Why was Vantas apologizing when it should have been Captor the one crawling at his feet? (man, that hit really messed his head!). The taller troll also seemed to think the same, judging by his confused face.

“What are you doing, KK?” Captor replied. “I’m the one that should be apologizing here!”

“Shut up and let me talk!” insisted his friend. “It was my fault, ok? You told me to stay away from you and I didn’t listen.”

“Well, yes, but…” Captor tried to reply.

“You were literally running away, and I went after you like a stubborn barkbeast after a bone,” insisted Karkat. “I should have listened to you, but as always I thought that I knew best and fucked up everything.”

“Oh, fuck you!” refused Captor, suddenly angry again. “Stop your fucking self-flagellation! I am the one that almost killed you! You don’t get to take responsibility for this! It was MY fault!”

“I was the one that told Strider to stop you!” yelled Karkat in response. “You were trying to get away, probably trying to protect us, and I stopped it!”

“And I was the one that stupidly decided to eat mind-honey even when I knew what it was going to do to my psionics!” screamed the taller troll. “I was careless!”

“I’m the one that provoked you in the first place!” insisted Karkat. “I should know better by now!”

Okaaaay, there they go again. Arguing like always. Dave didn’t understand how they had gone from Vantas apologizing for something that was totally not his fault to both trolls arguing about who was more guilty. He shrugged and stopped paying attention to them. It was clear that Captor had no intention to attack anybody and Karkat was feeling good enough to be screaming, so he was probably going to be fine.

Dave looked around, trying to get an idea of everyone else’s intentions (you should have done that before, idiot!), and saw Other-Dave on his phone, probably pestering someone, his sword nowhere to be seen. He turned and, on his other side, he saw Rose with a too interested glint in her eyes, observing the two trolls arguing. Just then, Karkat let go a shriek and Dave turned back to check on him. The grumpy troll was floating in mid-air in a cloud of red and blue psionics, while Captor was mocking him.

“Put me down, Captor!” complained Karkat. “I told you to bend down, not to make me float!”

“It’s not my fault that you are so short, KK.” shrugged Captor. “Do you know how bad it’s for my back to bend so low?”

“Fucker! As if you weren’t always crooked over your computer!” yelled Karkat.

Yep, everything was fine there, better look somewhere else. Like the wall or the long staircase. A change in the illumination of the room drew his attention, and when he looked to the source, he saw that Kanaya’s skin was glowing more than usual (fucking twilight vampires, dude). At least the vampire troll seemed satisfied with the situation now because she looked relaxed and composed again instead of threatening and furious (fast and furious, troll version). Dave especially noticed that her totally not scary weapon was nowhere to be seen.

“Fuck, KK!” he heard Captor screaming. “That hurts! Let go of my horns!”

Right, what was Dave doing? (checking out Kanaya, dude). Oh yeah, checking out the sexy vampire troll. Wait, not sexy, the definitively not sexy vampire troll. That still sounded bad, right? The standard level of attractive vampire troll? (don’t let Rose hear you saying that, bro, she will probably murder you and then shrink-confuse your dead corpse). Anyway, Kanaya had been checked out already, and Dave definitely didn’t want to see whatever Captor and Karkat were doing (nops, not looking there), so now what?

He looked down and realised that he still had his sword in his hand. He checked quickly on Captor again and saw him hugging Karkat’s waist while the short troll was floating a bit higher than him. Both of them were whispering something to each other, but they were too far away for Dave to hear, even if he wanted to. Alright! Time to look away again, Dave! Nothing to see here (that’s so homo, dude, too homo!), and if he didn’t see it, it didn’t happen. It was clear that there was no danger anymore, if there had even been any in the first place, so he decided to captchalogue his sword. Captor was definitely not crazy (it seems that he only fucked up before, which I totally get). As always, Future-Dave had been right.

“Of course we are still friends, dumbass!” he heard Karkat say then with a laugh. “Don’t steal my catchphrase!”

Other-Dave seemed to be done with whatever he was doing on his phone because he put it away. Dave realised then that Other-Dave was probably using their common Pesterchum account, so he could easily check it himself. As he only wanted to check his recent conversation and not actually say anything, he decided to be subtle for once and use his iShades instead of his phone. He activated them with a subtle touch on the side of his sunglasses and proceeded to open Pesterchum with a mental order. As expected there was a recent conversation at the top of his history.

turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering gallowsCalibrator [GC] at 9:38

TG: ei Terezi u guys ok?

TG: not crushed or dead by captor weird powers?

TG: come on Terezi say smth

TG: i know u r ok bc u were ok last time

TG: and i know everything about time

TG: all the time jokes

TG: a time traveller walks into a bar and he enjoys his food so much that he goes back four seconds

TG: why the dude put his clock in the oven? bc he wanted to have a hot time

GC: H3H3H3H3H3

GC: H3Y COOLK1D!!

TG: ei there u r

GC: VR1SK4 4ND 1 4R3 3XPLOR1NG TH3 M3T3OR

GC: WH4TS TH1S 4BOUT SOLLUX'S PS1ON1CS?? D1D H3 GOT TH3M B4CK??

TG: yeah 

TG: his powers went crazy and almost crushed karkat against a wall

TG: and then he almost fell to death but future-Daves saved him

TG: i mean i saved him

TG: i died too but it was a stupid death so i revived

TG: didnt u guys notice anything?

GC: WH4T??!!

GC: YOU D13D?? HOW W4S 1T?? 4ND K4RKNOBS TOO??

TG: its fine 

TG: it was almost an hour ago for me

TG: like ten minutes from u perspective

GC: >:o

GC: YOU 4R3 4 FUTUR3 D4V3?? 1 D1DNT KNOW YOU WH3R3 ST1LL T1M3-TR4V3LL1NG

TG: i havnt been doing much timetravelling tbh  


TG: more like not at all

TG: not much choice this time

TG: i had to save karkles

GC: W3 4R3 COM1NG B4CK NOW, BUT W3 4R3 D33P 1NS1DE THE M3T3OR SO 1T M1GHT T4K3 4 B1T  


GC: WH3R3 4R3 YOU??

TG: we are in the stairs hall

TG: the one between the cross hall and the common room

GC: OK, W3 4R3 ON OUR W4Y

GC: VR1SKA KNOWS SOM3 SHORTCUTS SO W3 W1LL B3 TH3R3 SOON

TG: yeah, u should come

TG: past-dave is going to need serket help

TG: he needs the code of one of her spiderwebs

GC: TH3N 1 W1LL S3ND VR1SK4 TO G3T SOM3 FROM H3R BLOCK F1RST 

TG: cool

TG: tell her to meet us in the alchemiter room

GC: GOT 1T

GC: WHY DO YOU N33D TH3 COD3 OF H3R SP1D3RW3BS 4NYW4Y??

TG: time shenanigans

GC: R1GHT, YOU 4R3 FUTUR3-D4V3

GC: 4R3 YOU GUYS 1N D4NG3R NOW??

TG: naa

TG: it was an accident

TG: captor got back his powers and they went crazy for a bit

TG: karkles and me were there and got hit

GC: YOU GUYS F1N3??

TG: vantas got a hit to the head but kanaya is motherhenning him

GC: K4N4Y4 W4S TH3R3 4ND SH3 L3T K4RK4T G3T HURT??

GC: >>:|

TG: she and Rose got here after the shit hit the fan

TG: i died and came back so im like new now

TG: vantas has kanaya and captor checking him

TG: so we are ok but if you want to come

TG: past-dave still needs that code

GC: W3 4R3 4LMOST 1N TH3 S1GNS H4LL

GC: 1 C4N SM3LL TH3 SW33T SW33T C4NDY R3D BLOOD 1N TH3 41R

TG: oh yeah

TG: karkles was bleeding a lot before

GC: >:o

GC: 1 H4V3 W4NT3D TO T4ST3 H1S BLOOD FOR SW33PS!!

TG: gross but b my guest

TG: he is fine now

TG: busy arguing with captor again

TG: in that weird way they do sometimes

TG: and by sometimes i mean ALL the times

TG: still the time god here

GC: HOLD T1GHT COOLK1D, 1’M 4LMOST TH3R3

GC: 1 W1LL B3 YOUR SH1N1NG KN1GHT 1N SH1N13R 4RMOUR FOR ONC3

TG: anything to stop this teen drama bs

GC: H3H3H3H3

GC: >:]

gallowsCalibrator [GC]  ceased pestering turntechGodhead [TG] at 9:49

Dave closed Pesterchum when he finished reading the conversation. The light in his iShades was turned off again, and he noticed that Kanaya was carrying Karkat bride style up the stairs. The hurt troll was protesting loudly, but he was not doing anything against it. Captor was laughing his ass off while still floating in the air. At his side, Rose was still observing everything with an interested look and Other-Dave was resting against the wall, looking bored. 

“So, what’s this shit about a code?” Dave asked him. 

“Oh, you checked Pesterchum already,” replied Other-Dave. “Then Terezi is almost here.”

Exactly at that moment, there was the sound of the transportalizer in the top floor being activated again, and Terezi appeared at the top of the stairs.

“Hey, CoolKids!” she exclaimed. “Vriska went to her respiteblock to get what you asked, she will be in the Alchemiter Block in a moment.”

“Cool, thanks Terezi!” answered Other-Dave.

“Do you need anything else or I can go and taste Karkat’s blood now?” she continued with her huge, creepy smile.

“WAIT, WHAT?!” protested Vantas even when everyone ignored him.

“Yeah, sure, go and pester him,” smiled Other-Dave. “We got everything under control here.”

Terezi crackled her lunatic-sounding laugh and jumped after Kanaya, probably trying to get to Karkat’s bleeding injury. She was really cool for a troll that led John into his premature death, but she was really weird sometimes. Well, it was funnier that way.

“Oi, Captor!” yelled Other-Dave. “Don’t go yet! We need your help!”

“Why should I do anything you say, Strider?” protested the troll, floating in the air half-way to the top floor.

“Maybe because we just saved your friend’s life, asshole?” replied Dave. “Or because I just died because of what you did?”

He expected the troll to argue back but again he was surprised when the troll simply accepted the accusation without any complaint. He even began floating down slowly, like a balloon that was losing air. He looked almost sad. Fuck, now Dave felt guilty.

“Seriously dude, relax,” nagged Other-Dave to him before turning back to the troll. “We need your help to save Karkat, Captor.”

The troll blinked, clearly confused. He checked behind him to where Kanaya and Karkat were almost in the top floor.

“Is he going to die again?” Captor asked. “I haven’t sensed anything.”

“No, no,” refused Other-Dave. “It’s a time thing, dude. I went back to the past twice to save Karkat, right? But the second time loop has not happened yet, that’s why there are still two of us here.”

Right. If his intuition was correct, Dave was supposedly expected to go back in time and become Other-Dave eventually. However, it was not the right moment yet, he could feel his timeline going straight for a bit more. They had not yet reached the point in their timeline with the loop to the past. There was something that had to be done before that, something was missing.

“Why don’t you do it now?” asked Captor to Other-Dave.

“No, it’s me who has to go back,” Dave explained. “But it’s not the moment yet, something has to happen before that.”

“And how do you know that exactly?” kept asking Captor.

“Timeline sense,” he shrugged.

Rose and Captor looked at him with similar weird expressions before turning towards Other-Dave (what? it’s not that hard!).

“We can sense our timeline and intuitively know when we need to time-travel or we risk creating a doomed timeline,” explains Other-Dave. “It’s hard to explain.”

“I guess it’s similar to my perception of the correct path,” said Rose. “I know things intuitively, but I couldn’t explain how or why. I don’t have a sense for doomed timelines, though.”

“Don’t look at me, it’s not like that for me at all,” shrugged Captor. “I literally hear doomed voices or live through my Doom-visions. I don’t get mystic knowledge directly from the Eldritch Gods.”

“Is interesting how both our races had similar cultural aspects, like the dark gods,” commented Rose. “Even if they were not as popular on Earth as they seemed to be on Alternia,” she continued saying. “Anyway, you mentioned that something has to happen before you can go back in time, Dave?”

“Yeah, but I don’t really know what it is,” replied Dave before turning to Other-Dave. “Can you give me a tip, dude?”

“Sure, but first follow me, I will explain it on the way,” answered Other-Dave while he began floating towards the top floor.

Dave did the same and soon Rose and Captor were following them. Dude, it was so cool to be able to fly like this!

“Where are we going?” he asked.

“To the Alchemiter Room, where you will have to alchemize this,” replied Other-Dave while he decaptchalogued the black and white net they had used to save Karkat. “Captor, Rose, we are going to need your help to figure out the code.”

Right, Other-Dave had that net with him when he appeared into the past, but Dave didn’t have it yet. It seemed that he would have to alchemize it, then. Well, it was not that bad, he had had to do some pretty stupid things during the game to keep his time loops consistent. In comparison, this was pretty lame (suck it up dude, you have to do what you have to do). 

Both Daves landed on the top floor of the Stairs Hall and began walking towards the transportalizer. Rose quickly joined them, but Captor kept himself floating a few inches from the ground, with his hands in his pockets and his psionics crackling around him. He made it look effortless, as if he didn’t need to even concentrate to use his power to fly (he must have really missed flying these past months, had he been able to fly all his life? that’s so cool!).

“Why do you need my help, Strider?” asked Captor from his higher point in space. “You already have a net so why don’t you use that one? Or use the code to make a new version?”

“That’s cheating, dude,” protested Dave. “And it won’t work, if I used a code obtained from the future it would create a time paradox.”

“A what?” asked Captor again, clearly confused.

Instead of answering, Other-Dave raised a finger and stepped into the transportalizer, so Captor’s question lingered in the air without anybody to answer it. It was a ridiculous but hilarious situation. For the look on the troll’s face, he was aware of the awkwardness in the air and he was pissed off about it. Dave hurried to get into the pedestal before the troll saw him laughing internally at him. Other-Dave was waiting on the other side with a huge smile and his iShades resting on his hair, he had clearly done it on purpose. Dave let go a short laugh.

“Smooth abscond, dude,” he told Other-Dave while offering a fist for a pump. “You should have seen Captor’s face.”

“I saw it last time, that’s why I did it,” answered Other-Dave while fist pumping him. “Don’t forget to do it yourself when you go back, show some solidarity to Past-Dave.”

“Always,” replied Dave.

Rose appeared on the pedestal behind him, smiling with a knowing smile. She stood there, blocking the transportation for a moment while she looked at both Daves with her nagging sister posture.

“Sollux will be here next, so I recommend you try to regain your composure if you want to keep up this cool-facade of yours,” she suggested. “Not that anyone believes it, but I thought it was appropriate to at least warn you.”

“Right, thanks, Rose,” Other-Dave thanked her and lowered his sunglasses back in place.

Dave also stopped smiling and turned towards the transportalizer with his best indifferent face. Rose rolled up her eyes and jumped down from the pedestal, a half-smile on her own face. Captor didn’t take long to transportalize himself into the hall, his eyes glowing more than usual, and his face contorted in a pissed off expression. He was even showing his sharp teeth a bit. Half an hour before, Dave would have been worried about the troll snapping on them, but now he knew that Captor was actually a chiller guy than he looked like.

“Sup?” Other-Dave greeted him.

Captor only rolled his irisless eyes back and a spark of electricity jumped to Dave’s doppelgänger. Other-Dave let go a squeal and Captor laughed at him, a lot more relaxed after that small act of vengeance.

“Dude, that stings!” protested Other-Dave.

“You deserved it,” shrugged the troll. “You are lucky I actually found your little prank funny.”

“I knew you were a cool dude, Captor,” smiled Other-Dave with a salute. “After you.”

Captor ignored him and began floating again, moving towards the platform on the other extreme of the hall. There was a huge machine blocking the transportaliser in the centre of the hall, the one that led to the old Computer’s Room. It had been there since that time when Captor went crazy and messed up the place. Not that Dave was complaining, he still remembered seeing Karkat there once on his knees, cleaning the multicoloured blood out of the floor. Better to keep that room closed forever.

“Are any of you going to explain to me what you meant with that weird time-thing?” asked Captor without even turning to them.

“A time paradox,” repeated Dave and Other-Dave in synchrony. 

“What is that?” Captor asked again, this time turning towards them and floating backwards (cool!).

“As far as I understand it, a time paradox occurs when there is a contradiction caused by a time traveller, like the Grandfather Paradox or the Causal Loop,” explained Rose. “In this case, I believe we will have the second one, which is characterised by a future event causing a past event, which in turn is the cause of the future event. I am right, Dave?”

“Why are you always making things so complicated, Rose?” protested Dave. “It’s easier to explain it like this: if I get the net or its code from my future self and bring it with me to the past, when I become my future self I will have a net that nobody had alchemised in the first place. Then, I will have to give it to my past self and the net would be trapped in an infinite time loop.”

“But, Dave, wouldn’t that also be the case with everything that Davesprite brought from the future?” asked Rose, pensive. “I clearly remember that you got your sword from him, among other things.”

Captor lowered himself into the next transportalizer and the conversation was halted until all of them were transported first to the Sign Room and then into the Alchemiter area. 

“So?” insisted Rose once they were all in the hall that led to the Alchemiter Room.

“Yeah, you are right, Rose,” answered Other-Dave this time. “However, Davesprite came from a doomed timeline and he was doomed himself. So, the time paradox couldn’t affect his timeline. It was already doomed so any additional damage was meaningless.”

“Exactly,” confirmed Dave. “We have to be more careful now, we don’t want to end in a doomed timeline, right?”

“I understood half of that, but I don’t really care anymore,” interrupted Captor. “The only thing that matters to me is that you need my help to figure out the net’s code, so you can go back and help KK, right?”

“Yeah, exactly,” confirmed Other-Dave.

“Can you at least tell me what it is made of?” Captor asked. “If not, I can probably still figure it out, but it will take more time. I don’t think we have the code for anything similar in our list yet, right, Lalonde?”

“We have the code for several pieces of cloth from Kanaya’s stock, but I don’t know what else we would need,” answered Rose. “This net of yours seems to be quite elastic, Dave.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it, I got you covered,” replied Other-Dave. “You need to use the code of one of Serket’s spiderwebs and another thing that you will have to figure out for yourself. I already asked Serket to bring us her code, but I can’t tell you more than that.”

That’s why they needed Captor. The troll had managed to create his algorithm for punch codes a few weeks ago and he had already figured out the code of several important stuff, like proper showers or a fridge. There were still things missing, like beds, mostly because the trolls used something called recuperacoons instead and they haven’t crossed a dream bubble with human memories yet. Taking into consideration that there were a lot more trolls than humans, it was not really strange, but it was annoying. Dave missed his things, especially mixing music with his turntables.

Serket was already waiting on the Alchemiter Room with some of her spider silks. She decaptchalogued the stuff on the floor, tried to annoy Captor unsuccessfully, and ended up leaving the room with one of her classic dramatic gestures. After that, it was smooth sailing. With the combined efforts of Rose and Captor, it didn’t take long to get the code for the net. And the moment it was finally alchemized, Dave began feeling the time loop leaning close. It was time to go back and save the day.

“Okay, I’m going back now,” he announced. “I have to save Karkat, stop Past-Me of killing Captor, and be a damn annoying cryptic with the code stuff. Am I missing anything, other-me?”

“You got it, bro,” replied Other-Dave. “Remember to pester Terezi.”

“Right,” nodded Dave. “See you on the other side, I guess.”

With that, he used his Timetables again and went back to the past, leaving only Other-Dave in the room. Well, Current-Dave now, or simply Dave. The three of them stayed quiet for a moment until Captor broke the silence.

“So, is it done?” asked the troll.

“Yep,” nodded Dave. “I'm still here so that means that Past-Me did a good job. The timeline is stable and going strong.”

“KK is safe, then?” insisted Captor. “He is not going to fall dead suddenly or anything like that?”

“Relax, dude, he’s fine,” confirmed Dave. “He was never going to die in the first place.”

At hearing that, the troll seemed to finally relax. He rubbed his face, covering his eyes with his hands for a moment before grabbing his right horns with one hand and moving the other down to rub his shoulder.

“Okay, good,” he said. “I’m going back to my block to sleep, now. Don’t wake me up for anything, unless it’s a life-or-death situation,” he continued, turning back towards the door, before stopping a moment and turning his head again to add something. “If it’s Serket, don’t even bother, just let her die.”

“Sure, dude,” replied Dave with a shrug.

The troll didn’t even reply back, he simply floated out of the room and disappeared down the hall. Captor’s idea had been not bad actually, Dave could use some sleep himself after the morning he had had. Dying, reviving, and using his powers twice after so long without practice had been more tiring that he had anticipated. He turned towards his ecto-sister to tell her exactly that, but the serious expression on her face made him freeze. 

“Dave, we need to talk,” she said from the chair where she was sitting. 

“Ouch, those are serious words, Rose,” he replied with a nervous laugh. “Like the breaking-up type of words,” he kept rambling, unable to stop. “If you want to break up with me, first we need to be actually dating, right? Which would be quite awkward with all the being kind-of-siblings stuff.

“Dave,” Rose interrupted him with a serious voice. “Sit down, don’t make me force you to do so. You know I can and will do it if needed.”

Dave almost provoked her into trying it, but he remembered what Rose did to the crazy clown troll with her weird magic (she restrained him on her own, almost without needing your help, dude). She probably could force him into the chair, after all, so better comply. Dave took one of the desk chairs and moved it until it was in front of his friend. Then, he sat on it backwards, with his arms resting on the backrest and his head over them.

“Okay, Rose, I’m sitting,” he said with a mocked voice. “Now, what?”

“Now, I would like to know exactly what happened with Karkat and Sollux,” Rose elaborated. “And why you accused a past version of yourself of almost having a Heroic Death.”

Oh, so that was what this was about. Crap, he shouldn’t have said that. Who knows what weird significance Rose would deduce from his past reckless actions. It was not like he had any other option, though, he had known his ecto-sister for long enough to recognise when she was being serious about something. Rose would not stop pestering him until he confessed all his crimes. It had already been hard to resist when she was not more than letters on a screen, now that she was physically there, there was no way to escape. So, Dave sighed and summarized what had happened that morning since the moment he transportalized into the Stairs Hall and found himself in front of Captor.

“So, you are saying that you jumped after Karkat from a third floor, and barely avoided crashing into the ground yourself in the process,” repeated Rose. “I know I’m not going to like the answer to my question, but I have to ask anyway: what were you thinking, Dave?!”

“Nothing!” replied Dave with his hands raised in a placating gesture. “Literally nothing, my body moved before I even realised what I was doing.”

That was clearly the wrong answer because Rose’s expression became almost murderous (crazy murderers everywhere!). Dave shrunk a bit until he was almost hiding behind his chair. Almost but not quite, he had an image to preserve after all. Cool guys didn’t hide cowardly (cool guys usually don’t have Rose fucking Lalonde as ecto-sister!)

“You know that the sentence _‘my body moved on its own’_ is classical heroic bullshit stuff, right?” insisted Rose. “I’m pretty sure that if you had crashed onto the floor with THAT sentence in your mind, it would have been a Heroic Death, Dave!”

“Come on, Rose!” he pouted. “What was I supposed to do? Karkat would have died, there was no time to think!”

“You are the Knight of TIME!” screamed Rose. “If there is something you have in abundance is fucking time, Dave!”

“Well, yes,” conceded Dave. “That’s why there were two other-me there, remember? The amazing dudes that saved the day? Which by coincidences of fate, they were both me, so that makes me double amazing.”

“You mean the Dave that actually got killed and was lucky that it was a stupid enough death even for this messed up game?” insisted his friend. “As I understand, it could have been the first Dave the one hitting his head on the stairs and dying instead. And that would have been PERMANENT!”

At this point Rose had stood up from her chair and was actually gesticulating and almost screaming. Dave had never seen her so altered. Even when she decided to go in a suicide mission to destroy the Green Sun by herself, she had been mostly laid-back. It was almost scary to see her like this.

“It doesn’t work like that,” he protested. “If the first Dave was supposed to die, there would not have been other-Daves appearing, and nobody would have been there to catch Karkat in the first place. He would have died too.”

“But you didn’t know that Daves from the future were about to appear when you jumped!” yelled Rose. “You acted in a reckless impulse! Don’t try to rationalise it to me now!”

“Karkat was going to die!” Dave finally yelled back. “I couldn’t let him die like that!”

Rose had begun walking in small circles at some point, but now she stopped. She was looking away and there was a guilty expression in her face.

“I know it sounds horrible, but if it had been between Karkat or you, I would have preferred him to be the one to die,” she whispered. 

Dave’s blood ran cold when he heard that. He knew that Rose didn’t really want Karkat to die, she was talking about the lesser evil in a bad situation. But even with that, the idea of someone else dying when Dave could do something to avoid it was horrifying. Especially when that someone was Karkat, who was a really good person and didn’t deserve it at all.

“Don’t say stuff like that, Rose,” he replied in a low voice. “Don’t even joke about it. Nobody deserves that.”

“I’m not as selfless as you are, Dave,” the girl said with her eyes fixed on the floor. “Of course he doesn’t deserve to die, but you are one of my best friends. I don’t know what I would have done if you had died today.”

Oh. Dave felt quite stupid. Rose was worried about him, of course she was. If their roles had been reversed, he would have been as scared or even more. He raised up from the chair and approached Rose, not really knowing what to do (maybe you are supposed to hug her now, or something like that?)

“I’m here, Rose,” he said in the end, awkwardly. “I’m fine.”

Rose raised her eyes towards him and, for a moment, Dave thought that she was going to cry. Then, Rose moved the few steps between them and hugged him tightly. Dave froze. 

“You scared me, you dumbass!” he heard Rose saying against his God Tier clothes.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, still awkwardly frozen in place (maybe you should hug her back? how does hugging work, exactly? should you put your hands around her or something like that?)

They stayed like that for a few moments, with Dave trying to convince his body to move and hug Rose back. He really wanted to do it, but he couldn’t move his arms or any part of his body. He tried to at least relax into the hug, but he couldn’t. It was awkward and a part of his brain was yelling scared that there was someone too close to him (she has you trapped, dude! you have to get away, you have to escape!). Rose probably felt his awkwardness because she released him after only a few moments.

“Sorry about that,” she apologized, taking a step back.

“It’s okay,” whispered Dave, trying to ignore his racing heart and the alarms going full volume in his brain.

“I know that you can’t stop being a hero, but can you at least be more careful?” asked Rose with a sad smile. “Please?”

“I will try,” nodded Dave. “I’m sorry I worried you.”

“It’s okay, that’s what siblings are for, right?” joked Rose with a smile. “To be there for each other.”

The truth was that Dave didn’t know, and Rose probably felt the same. Both of them had always considered themselves an only child, and the fact that they were actually genetic siblings in a weird paradox fated way didn’t erase a full childhood of loneliness. However, Dave liked the idea of having a sister, especially if it was Rose.

“Sure, I probably need someone to call me out on my bullshit sometimes, anyway,” he smiled and extended a hand for a handshake. “In exchange, I swear to kick your ass if you ever go Grimdark again.”

Rose laughed and took his hand in hers.

“Deal.”

* * *

“The Court of Her Tyranny is complete!”

Dave turned from the wall where he was incorporating a representation of the gods Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff and looked to where Terezi was sitting on the floor. In front of her, she had constructed a new five floors tall building made of cans in different colours. On the ground there was also a shitty drawn car parking lot and a garden with purple trees surrounding the building. It was perfect.

“Looks cool, Terezi!” he congratulated her.

“Of course it does! I was the one making it!” she laughed. “Mayor! Where are you, Mayor? Come and check the new building!”

The little carapacian got up from where he was decorating the suburban areas and came towards them, his little eyes smiling. He gestured in his non-verbal language.

_“The new building is an appropriate incorporation to our beloved Town, I thank you for your help, Terezi.”_

“He says that it looks nice,” he translated. “And is thanking you, Terezi.”

“Aaaaw!” she exclaimed while running to hug the Mayor. “You are most welcome, Mayor! In compensation for my efforts, you need to let me take care of all the Law enforcement roles!”

_“Of course, I will be most pleased to nominate you Minister of the Law and Order of Can Town!”_

“That’s so nice of you, Mayor,” Dave smiled at him. “He just nominated you as the Minister of Justice!”

“Yes!” smiled Terezi, jumping excitedly. “I prefer to be called Supreme Legislacerator, though. I will begin right away! This town has been running lawless for too long!”

“How can I help?” Dave asked.

“We need to build a prison and a torture chamber for interrogations!” decided the girl, while beginning to collect various unused cans. “After all, we will need somewhere to put the criminals before beginning to judge them.”

“Do we need a torture chamber?” Dave complained while he sat down in an empty space near the Court building. “Can we hold on a bit on the blood-thirsty parts?”

“But without torture, how are Legislacerators to learn the truth the persecutors are hiding?” insisted Terezi. 

“Maybe with proper investigation,” answered Dave. “You know, with policemen, investigators, and the secret governmental spies dressed in black suits and reading old newspapers on park benches in a non-suspicious-totally-suspicious way.”

“That sounds interesting,” replied Terezi. “Maybe we can make the torture chambers part of this secret conspiracy.”

“Yeah!” agreed Dave, excited. “That would be so cool! We can make a fake business building that is totally a secret base for dirty governmental work! That’s totally a human thing!”

The Mayor tapped on Dave’s shoulder, and he looked up at the carapacian. Since they began working together in Can Town, they realised that Dave could only understand what he was saying if he was looking at him. Taking into consideration that the Mayor didn’t speak aloud, it kind of made sense that he needed to actually see him making his gestures for the Gift of Gab to translate them into words. 

_“Would these secret Agents be like the ones in Derse? They were really bad guys.”_

“Oh, no, dude,” replied Dave. “They can be good guys if you want, like the ones in Prospit, I guess. Did prospitians have Agents too? I was never there, I’m a Derse dreamer after all.”

“They do,” answered Terezi. “I was a Prospit dreamer myself, so I met some of them. They were so boring, though. All of them were nice guys going around smiling and helping everyone.”

_“I had a dear friend that was a prospitian. I hope they are okay.”_

Oh, right, the Mayor had lost friends too when they escaped the game riding the meteor. Fuck, that was so sad, poor dude (yeah, at least Jade and John are alive, even if you can’t talk to them anymore).

“I’m sure she is fine,” said Dave, trying to console him. “You went away, right? Maybe she did the same.”

_“I don’t remember how I managed to arrive here, though. The last thing I saw was a bad dersitian with wings, a sword, and a strange face. They hurt me.”_

“Oh, he was probably Jack,” replied Dave. “He’s the guy we are running from now.”

_“They were really bad.”_

“I know, dude, but you are safe here, I promise,” insisted Dave. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

The Mayor smiled in the way that he always did: with all his face. Dave always found it curious how expressive he could be for a guy with no discernible mouth. He knew that he had one because he had seen him eat, but, when closed, it was almost impossible to differentiate from the rest of his black face. The fact that he didn’t use his mouth to talk made it even harder to see.

“What are you talking about, guys?” protested Terezi. “You are leaving me out of the loop, again.”

“Sorry, Terezi,” Dave apologized. “The Mayor was telling me about a prospitian friend he left behind when moving to the meteor.”

“Oh, were they an exile too?” asked the blind troll. “There were probably four of you, right? One for each human kid?”

The Mayor began gesturing excitedly, apparently Terezi had guessed correctly and he was happy to talk about his old friends. Dave dropped his chalk and focused all his attention on him, translating what he was saying aloud for Terezi to hear. The troll kept colouring the cans for her new building while they talked, sometimes adding some story of her own. It was nice, simply being there talking and joking without any worry on his mind.

Soon they ran out of stories and continued working on the town in a comfortable silence. The Mayor went back to the suburban areas in the corner of the room, while Dave was drawing streets around Terezi’s new building. When he was done with that section, he captchalogued his chalk and moved near to the troll.

“Sup?” he greeted her when he sat down at her side.

“Sup yourself, CoolKid,” was her reply. “How is the road construction going? Any troublemakers?”

“The streets surrounding the new Court are finished,” reported Dave. “There were a couple of cans out in the streets after curfew, but they had already been dealt with properly.”

“Good job, officer!” said Terezi with one of her huge smiles. “Now you can help me with the prison, it has to be the most secure building of the city!”

Dave picked up a colourless can of shrimp and considered which colour to use. He took a look at the cans spread out around the troll. Most of them had been coloured with a mix of different colours in weird patterns. He tried to find a connection between them, but it looked really random. Taking into consideration that Terezi was blind, it was not that strange. 

“What colour do you want the prison to be?” he finally asked.

“It isn’t clear?” asked Terezi back. “The colour of blood!”

“Red, then,” decided Dave.

“Good choice, mutant blood is the best one!” agreed the troll.

Dave took another look at the cans coloured in a myriad of colours and remembered that the troll's blood came in different colours. He could still see in his mind a room full of computers decorated with spots of yellow, green, and pink blood, with Karkat in the middle of it trying to clean the mess. All the colours had been strangely vivid, almost like paint instead of blood. He remembered all the numerous dead Daves found in pools of dried red blood (Bro’s blood was still fresh when you found him, remember?)

“What do you mean by ‘mutant blood’?” he asked suddenly, trying to bury the memory of his dead guardian back into the depths of his mind.

“Nothing, only blood in a colour that is not recognised in the Hemospectrum,” explained Terezi while putting her finished can on the floor and taking a new one.

“And what is the _‘Hemospectrum’_?” insisted Dave, still confused.

Terezi stopped painting and turned to look at him. Or smell at him, whatever she did instead of looking. She put the can back on the floor.

“You know that troll’s blood can be in different colours, right?” she asked, and Dave nodded in agreement. “In Alternia, trolls were separated into castes depending on their blood colour.”

Oh. That sounded bad. He had a bad feeling about this, but he had to ask.

“Like?”

“From lower to top the castes were: rust, bronze, gold, olive, jade, teal, blue, indigo, purple, violet and fuchsia. Each blood caste had different characteristics and roles in our society, but the most important factors were our numbers and life expectancy,” explained the troll. “The higher in the Hemospectrum, the fewer trolls per caste, but the longer they lived.”

“Oh, really?” commented Dave, curious. “How much longer? A few decades? A hundred years?”

“Her Imperious Condescension was one of the few fuchsia trolls in Alternia and it was rumoured that she had lived for various millennia,” specified Terezi. “In contrast, rust blooded usually didn't live longer than twenty sweeps. However, they almost never survived long enough to die of old age so, who really knows?”

If Dave was not mistaken, a sweep was a bit more than two years. Doing the math, he realised that twenty sweeps was a bit more than forty years (dude, that’s half a human’s life!). And on the other hand, someone that could live for millennia? That was ballshit crazy.

“That’s not all, though,” elaborated Terezi. “Trolls higher in the Hemospectrum had better social status and ruled over the ones at the bottom. They were even allowed to cull any lowblood at their discretion without having to suffer any legal persecution.”

“I’m not going to lie, that sounds horrible,” Dave said. “But those were the ones inside the Hemospectrum, so normal dudes, right? Then, what happened to mutants?”

“Those with mutant blood were anyone with some kind of genetic mutation that placed them outside of the Hemospectrum,” clarified Terezi. “Anyone with blood of a colour not registered in the Hemospectrum, like yours, was killed instantly.”

Wow, that was harsh, even for trolls. Dave looked at the red chalk on his hand and wondered what would have happened to humans if the trolls ever conquered their planet. All of them had red blood, so they were mutants in the eyes of the alternians. Wait, red blood, he had seen a troll bleeding red before.

“But, Karkat has red blood, like human-red blood,” he realised. “I saw it when he got hurt by Captor’s psionics. Does that mean that he is… ?”

“Yeah, Karkat is a mutant,” confirmed Terezi with a sigh. “He should have been killed at hatching or as a grub, it's a miracle that he survived for this long. Before the game, almost nobody knew that he was a mutant, even though some of us had our suspicions.”

Oh. That was terrible. He thought about the short, bossy troll, and tried to imagine him as a little kid, alone and scared of being killed only because of the colour of his blood. He could almost see him locked up in his own room, scared of what was outside the door, of the monsters that could come in and kill him at any moment. Trying to keep himself awake for days because he was too scared to fall asleep, convinced that someone would kill him in his sleep. For a moment, that scared kid looked up and, instead of grey skin and small orange horns, he saw blond hair and red eyes (oh, fuck! stop thinking about it right now!)

“What are you?” Dave asked Terezi, trying to distract himself from his own thoughts. “Which caste, I mean.”

The troll girl looked at him in silence for a moment, before moving closer to him. Then, she raised her hand and with a quick movement of her other hand, she cut herself lightly on her arm with her own claw. A thin line of bluish coloured blood emerged from the cut. Dave’s heart jumped at the sight of blood, and he rushed to cover her wound with the bottom of his cape.

“Don’t do that!” he protested. “You could have told me instead of hurting yourself like this!”

“It’s a shallow cut,” Terezi giggled a bit at his apparently exaggerated reaction. “It will heal fast.”

“I didn’t need to see you bleeding out when you could have simply told me that you had blue blood!” kept arguing Dave while he tore the bottom of his cape to bandage her arm.

“Teal,” replied the troll. “Vriska is blue-blooded, my blood’s colour is teal.”

Dave raised his head at this, ready to argue that he had never heard of a colour named _‘teal’_ , but then he realised how close their faces were. There was almost no distance between them. They were so close that Dave could see small, thin scars in Terezi’s cheek and small spots where the skin was a bit lighter. Even with the red sunglasses covering so much of her face, Dave could see that the girl was beautiful. He already knew that Terezi was beautiful in her alien, strange way, but until this point it had not been more than a passing idea.

Dave’s heart was racing, and he was still holding Terezi’s arm with a hand that was becoming disgustingly sweaty by the minute. He focused on her face, from her pointed horns emerging between dark, curly hair, to her shiny black lips. Dave had liked Terezi since the game. She was funny, crazy in the best way, braver than most, and she cared deeply about her friends and doing the right thing. They had become friends really quickly through their Pesterchum conversations, and it had only got better once they finally met in person. He truly, truly liked her. Normally at this point and in this kind of situation, any guy would kiss the pretty alien girl, right? (yeah, what are you waiting for, dude?)

He was still debating with himself when Terezi pushed him away using both of her hands. Dave fell back, destroying the War Memorial monument with his fall, and he raised his head just in time to see Terezi running out of the room. Fuck. He let himself rest back on the floor, among scattered cans. He pushed his glasses up into his hair and covered his eyes with his hands. What had just happened?

“Fuck,” he cursed aloud.

Small steps ran towards him and Dave fell someone getting to the floor next to him. When he felt a tap on his shoulder, he uncovered one of his eyes and saw the Mayor there, gesturing quickly at him with worry in his eyes.

_“What happened?!”_

“I have no idea, dude,” he answered with a tired growl. “I think I fucked up somehow, but I don’t know what I did.”

He felt the hand of the carapacian petting his hair lightly with sympathetic eyes and Dave closed his eyes. Great, now, what was he going to do about this mess?

* * *

Hours later, Dave entered the Common Room, aiming for the kitchen. However, when he went around the huge glass container with a scary monster in the centre of the room, he saw that there was new furniture in the far corner. Someone had added a couple of couches, one red and another blue, a small coffee table and something that looked suspiciously like the biggest flat-screen TV he had ever seen (a TV! finally! that’s amazing!)

Forgetting about his snacks, Dave almost ran towards the TV. He noticed a pile of blankets and pillows in the blue couch, but he ignored it and focused on the screen. The TV was resting on a low table and there were strange bug things on the floor with cables that connected to the side of the TV. Next to the screen, on the floor, there was a small green box with the TV electrical plug connected on its top. However, the most amazing thing was that the TV was on, showing the paused screen of what looked like a weird-looking red car in a colourful race (is that Mario Kart?!). Observing the image carefully, he noticed a small astonishing detail. 

“Why the fuck are horns in Mario’s head?!” he exclaimed.

There was a growl coming from somewhere and the pile of blankets moved behind him. Dave turned quickly, almost floating right to the ceiling with a barely restrained scared jump. There was a spark of red-and-blue electricity and some of the blankets in the pile moved enough to reveal two eyes projecting light in the same colour as the psionics. 

“Fuck off,” someone growled to him from the pile.

“Captor?” Dave called. “What are you doing?”

“Sleeping,” murmured the voice, the eyes half-closed. “Or at least I was before you began yelling.”

“I was not yelling, dude, I’m not Karkat!” protested Dave. 

“Thanks to the gods for that,” replied the troll. “One is already too much, sometimes.”

Dave laughed and jumped into the red couch, leaving the blue one to the troll. He eyed his companion, trying to judge if the troll would attack him or ignore him. Captor was really not a bad guy, like Dave discovered a few days ago, but he was weird. Sometimes he was grumpy and more irritable than Karkat, and others he was a really chill dude.

“Did you alchemize the couches and the TV?” he asked, still excited. “Man, I can’t believe we finally have a TV! Do you think that we will get any channel here? Like Paradox Channel or Horrorterror TV.”

There was a short laugh coming from the pile and a few more blankets floated to the floor. Now Dave could see a bit more of the troll’s face and two of his horns. He noticed that Captor’s horns were as big and sharp as Terezi’s but curved instead of straight. He also had two pairs instead of only one, and his black hair was shorter. All trolls had black hair, apparently, maybe it was a race thing.

“Why are you here?” Dave asked then, “Not complaining, eh? It’s only that it’s weird to see you in the common area.”

“I’m hiding,” answered the troll, while a hand appeared from under the pile and scratched absently at one of his horns.

“Hiding? Here?” repeated Dave. “From whom?”

“KK,” replied Captor with a yawn. “He has been following me around lately, being more annoying than usual.”

Okay. That was weird and something that Dave really didn’t want to meddle in. He was not sure what was the deal between Karkat and Captor but, judging by the running gossip in the meteor, everyone assumed that they were in some kind of troll romantic relationship. Dave was not that sure of it, though. He hadn’t seen them doing anything remotely romantic and, while he recognized that they had had weird moments (like hugging and whispering to each other in the middle of the room), from his point of view they looked more like bros. There was also the fact that they were both guys and, even when Dave knew that homosexuality was a thing, neither Karkat or Captor looked gay. Not that he had anything against it, he just couldn’t see them being like that, they looked like normal dudes (yeah, totally not homo).

“Couldn’t you just stay in your section?” he asked. “If you block your transportaliser he can’t come in, right?”

“I tried but then he pestered me non-stop on Trollian,” complained the troll. “I could have blocked his account, but knowing him he would have found a new way to be a nuisance.”

“Oh, right,” agreed Dave, even when he was not so sure about it.

“I also kind of owe him at least, after almost killing him with my psionics,” confessed the troll with a guilty voice. “Letting him invade my private area is a small punishment compared to what I deserve.”

Dave almost argued that what had happened with Captor’s psionics had been an accident, but in the end, he decided against it. Somehow, he didn’t think the troll would believe him, even when it was the truth. He understood the sentiment though, he still felt guilty sometimes for every doomed Dave that had died during the game. He knew that it had not really been his fault, but that didn’t erase his feelings.

“And he hasn't thought of looking for you in the common area?” asked Dave. “I mean, everyone comes here at some point to get food.”

“KK is not the brightest of our kind,” smiled the troll with a conspiratorial glance. “And I might have trapped him in my section, totally by accident.”

Dave laughed at that, trying to imagine the face of the short troll when he realised that he had been tricked. 

“An accident, sure,” he smiled to the other troll. “Man, when he gets out of there, his rant will be historic.”

“If you are trying to convince me of my wrongdoings, you are totally failing, Strider,” replied Captor. “Warning me about KK’s future rant will not stop me. His tantrums are hilarious, especially when he is really pissed off.”

“Yeah, I know, and I totally agree on that,” replied Dave. “Nothing funnier than a good old Vantas-patented tantrum.”

Captor didn’t say anything else after that, but the blankets still covering him finally floated away and fell to the floor. Dave noticed several bags of snacks that had been hidden under the blankets, and what looked like a video game controller (so it is Mario Kart!). His attention, though, focused on the familiar orange bag of Doritos, resting open next to the troll.

“Are these my Doritos?!” he exclaimed. “So, you are the one who stole all my snacks!”

“Oh, do you mean these?” asked Captor while he made the bag float with his powers. “So that’s their name! I had been wondering about it for nights!”

“Yeah?” replied Dave, confused. “It says it there in the bag, see? D-O-R-I-T-O-S. Doritos.”

“I don’t read human, remember?” protested the troll. “It’s just gibberish to me.”

Right, Dave always forgot that not everyone had the Gift of Gab. It seemed that Captor was not a God Tier, like Terezi. Not that he really needed it, in Dave’s opinion, he certainly didn’t need a power-up as he was more than powerful on his own.

“Okay, first of all, our language was not called ‘human’, that’s only the name of our species, dude,” explained Dave. “There are a ton of different human languages, or maybe I should better say that there were a lot of languages. I guess that now that is only the four of us, there is only English,” pondered Dave. “Anyway, the point is that yes, those are called Doritos and are mine.”

“What is the second point?” asked Captor, confused.

“What?”

“You said ‘first of all’,” explained Captor. “If there is a first point, there needs to be a second one, too.” 

“There is no second anything, other than the fact that you stole my stuff and I want it back!” protested Dave.

“I alchemised these snacks myself, so they are mine,” shrugged the troll. “But it is true that I ate your snacks and forgot to replenish the cupboards afterwards. Sorry about that, they were just so good, and I ended up eating all of them.”

At that statement, Dave’s fleeting anger completely evaporated. He had been arguing with his friends about the superiority and coolness of his favourite snack for years, but nobody seemed to like them (finally someone that can appreciate haute cuisine!).

“Do you really like them?!” he asked, excited. “I love Doritos, too! None of my friends like them, but I know that they are the best food ever!”

“Strider, you have stupid friends,” declared Captor. “Because these are the best snacks I have ever eaten. They are even better than GrubSnack, and those were my previous favourite.”

“Fuck yeah!” exclaimed Dave. “Finally! This deserves a fist pump, dude!”

Dave raised his fist, expecting the other troll to do the same, but instead of that, Captor simply looked at him with a confused expression. 

“Come on, dude, don’t leave me hanging like this,” he protested.

“I don’t know what you want me to do,” complained the troll. “What’s a _‘fist pump’_?”

“Oh, don’t you trolls do it?” asked Dave. “It’s okay, I will teach you. Just close your hand in a fist and bring it closer to mine, I will do the rest.”

Captor looked between his own hand and Dave’s a couple of times, confused, but he did as he was told. He closed his right hand in a fist and moved it closer to the human’s. Dave finished the fist pump gently, trying to not seem too aggressive and scare the troll, or something stupid like that.

“There, fist pump accomplished,” he stated. “Good job, dude!”

Captor smiled slightly and pulled back his arm. He rubbed the side of his neck and turned back to the screen. Dave looked that way, too. It was still paused with Troll-Mario floating over his red car after having been hit by a red Koopa shell. Funny how the most random stuff was the same, or almost the same, in both universes.

“So, do you know how to play Mario Scuttlebug?” Captor asked.

“In our world it was called Mario Kart and I was the fucking best at it!” declared Dave.

The troll smirked and offered him a second game controller, making it float until it was in front of Dave. He grabbed it automatically, and the electrical energy dissipated at his touch without hurting him.

“I was the best of my universe,” declared the troll. “Let’s see who is the best of Paradox Space!”

“Fuck yeah!” laughed Dave.

A few hours later they had moved on from Troll-Mario Kart to Call of Drone, the troll version of Call of Duty, and after that to Super Annihilator Bros. Captor was clearly better at shooter games, but Dave was the master of racing ones. They seemed to be evenly matched in fighting games, though, which made playing against him even more fun than usual. They were in the middle of a tournament when Dave’s phone began beeping with new messages in Pesterchum, distracting him enough for Captor to kill his character.

“Fuck!” swore Dave. “That’s not fair, I got distracted.”

“Not my fault if you can’t do two things at the same time,” shrugged Captor. “You are disqualified now. Do you want me to restart the tournament or should I finish it on my own?”

“Go ahead,” answered Dave while his phone kept beeping. “I’ll check who is responsible for my dethronement while you play. Someone has to pay for this offence.” 

Captor nodded and began the next battle round, this time against the machine. Dave took out his phone and, as expected, he saw that someone had pestered him in Pesterchum. There was a new memo group called ‘WHERE THE FUCK IS SOLLUX?!’. Dave raised an eyebrow at that title and checked the members of the chat. He saw that everyone except Serket and Captor had been invited to the conversation and, in fact, there was some debate already going on strong in there. He quickly looked at Captor, making sure that he hadn’t realised that something was amiss, and he entered the chat.

carcinoGeneticist [CG] opened time-locked bulletin board “ _WHERE THE FUCK IS SOLLUX?!_ ” at 22:48

grimAuxiliatrix [GA]  has been added to the bulletin board 

tentacleTherapist [TT] has been added to the bulletin board

gallowsCalibrator [GC] has been added to the bulletin board

turntechGodhead [TG] has been added to the bulletin board

CG: ALRIGHT EVERYONE! WE HAVE AN EMERGENCY SITUATION HERE! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL!

CG: WE HAVE A FUGITIVE TROLL THAT MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE GONE ROGUE ON US. I’M TALKING ABOUT OUR RESIDENT INSUFFERABLE AND NOOKSNIFFER EXTRAORDINAIRE AND, BEFORE YOU BEGIN ACCUSING EACH OTHER, LET ME SPECIFY THAT I’M TALKING ABOUT CAPTOR

CG: HE IS GONE, HE HAS HIS FULL PSIONICS BACK, AND, AS EVERYONE KNOWS, HE HAS NOT BEEN IN HIS RIGHT MIND LATELY. SO, AS YOUR SPIRITUAL LEADER, I COMMAND EVERYONE TO GIVE ME ANY INFORMATION YOU HAVE ABOUT THE WHEREABOUTS OF THE FUCKER!

GA: Karkat Is This A Real Emergency Situation Or A Mocking Gesture

CG: KANAYA! JUST THE ONE I NEEDED! HAVE YOU SEEN SOLLUX?!

GA: I Was Under The Impression That He Was With You

CG: YEAH, I HAVE BEEN KEEPING TABS ON HIM FOR THE PAST FEW NIGHTS, BUT THE FUCKER USED MY FIVE-MINUTES NAP TO ABSCOND SOMEWHERE AND LOCK ME UP IN HIS SECTION. WHICH BY THE WAY I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT IF SOMEONE CAN MOVE THEIR LAZY AND REPUGNANT BODY OVER HERE AND LET ME OUT

GA: Well I Was Going To Release You But After That Categorization I Don’t Believe I Fit The Profile Anymore

CG: COME ON KANAYA, YOU KNOW I DIDN’T MEAN YOU WITH THAT BODY REFERENCE

GC: H3H3H3H3

GC: SO TH4TS WHY SOLLUX PUT TH4T L4RG3 CONT41N3R OV3R H1S TR4NSPORT4L1S3R

CG: WHAT THE FUCK, TEREZI?! YOU ACTUALLY WERE PRESENT WHEN HE WAS FUCKING LOCKING ME HERE AND YOU DIDN’T THOUGHT THAT ANYTHING WRONG WAS GOING ON THERE? AMAZING INVESTIGATION SKILLS THERE, DUMBASS!

GC: WHO 4M 1 TO JUDG3 4 TROLL FOR WH4T TH3Y K33P 1N TH31R PR1V4T3 CH4MB3RS??

GC: >:]

GC: > :]

GC: >:]

GC: > :]

CG: WHAT ARE YOU FUCKING DOING WITH YOUR HORNS?! STOP THAT NONSENSE RIGHT NOW!

GC: THOS3 4R3 NOT MY HORNS, DUMB4SS. TH3Y 4R3 MY G4ND3RBROWS, 1’M W1GGL1NG TH3M 4T YOU  


GC: >:]

GC: > :]

GC: >:]

CG: STOP THAT! I’M SERIOUS TEREZI, I DON’T WANT TO SEE ANY OF YOUR GANDERBROWS MOVING AWAY FROM YOUR DOTS OR I SWEAR TO GOG THAT I WILL HUNT YOU AND I WILL SHAVE THEM OUT OF YOUR FACE FOR REAL!!

GC: >:]

CG: DON’T DO IT, DON’T YOU DARE FUCKING DO IT!

GC: > :]

CG: GOG DAMMIT, YOU HAD TO GO THERE!

GC: > :]

CG: OK, FINE, I DON’T FUCKING CARE ANYMORE! SEND YOUR FUCKING GANDERBROWS INTO DEEP PARADOX SPACE FOR WHAT I CARE!

GC: H3H3H3H3H3

GC: YOU 4R3 JUST SO 34SY SOM3T1M3S K4RK4T

TT: As interesting from a psychological point of view as this debate is, I would like to know what was the initial objective of creating this memo in the first place

GA: I Am In Agreement With Rose Regarding The Futility Of This Board

GA: Karkat Is There Truly An Urgent Situation To Consider Or Were You Just Trying To Entertain Yourself 

GC: Y34H, 1 F1ND YOUR M3MO STUP1D TOO BUT TH4TS MY USU4L OP1N1ON OF TH3M

GC: 4T L34ST NOW YOU H4V3 TH3 M1N1MUM COMMON S3NS3 TO T1M3-BLOCK YOUR M3MOS

CG: I’M SERIOUS ABOUT SOLLUX, I DON’T KNOW WHERE THE FUCK HE HAS RUN OUT TO AND, AS I SAID, HE IS NOT IN HIS RIGHT MIND AT THE MOMENT

TT: What do you mean by that? Do you have reasons to believe that he represents any threat or danger for us now?

CG: NO, OF COURSE NOT. HE IS INCAPABLE TO HURT EVEN A FUCKING WINGEDBUG AT THE MOMENT. HE IS NOT GOING TO HURT ANYONE, OTHER THAN MAYBE HIMSELF

CG: LOOK, I DON’T WANT TO GET INTO PRIVATE DETAILS BUT HE IS A BIT UNSTABLE RIGHT NOW AND I KNOW WHAT HE CAN DO WHEN HE IS LIKE THIS

GA: Oh You Believe He Has Fallen In One Of His Strange Moods

CG: I DON’T BELIEVE IT, I KNOW HE HAS. THAT’S WHY I HAVE BEEN KEEPING TABS ON HIM LATELY, MAKING SURE THAT HE DOESN’T DO ANYTHING RECKLESS OR TOO DRAMATIC

GC: 1S TH4T WHY YOU 4R3 K33P1NG VR1SK4 OUT OF TH3 M3MO??

CG: ACTUALLY, YES. SOLLUX WOULD MURDER ME IF I LET SPIDERTROLL KNOW ABOUT HIS SOMETIMES-WEAKENING MOODS. YOU KNOW BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE THAT SHE WOULD TRY TO EXPLOIT HIS WEAKNESS AT SOME POINT AND THAT WOULD END BAD FOR EVERYONE.

GC: Y34H, I DON’T TH1NK SH3 WOULD B3 4BL3 TO R3S1ST TH3 T3MPT4T1ON

CG: I’M NOT REALLY COMFORTABLE WITH LETTING ANY OF YOU KNOW EITHER, BUT I FIGURED THAT IF WE ARE TO COEXIST IN THIS DESERTED ROCK FOR A SWEEP AND A HALF YOU WOULD EVENTUALLY NOTICE ANYWAY. 

CG: ALSO, DON’T TELL THE DUMBASS BUT I’M WORRIED ABOUT HIM

GA: I Assume By Your Words That He Is Going Through A Particular Strong Phase

CG: I HAVE SEEN WORSE BUT I DON’T WANT IT TO GET TO THAT POINT AND FRANKLY I’M RUNNING OUT OF IDEAS

CG: AND OPTIONS BECAUSE AS I SAID BEFORE, THE FUCKER JUST LOCKED ME IN HIS SECTION AND IT’S CLEAR THAT HE DOESN’T INTEND TO LET ME HELP HIM

TT: I would not like to make assumptions here, but if you are talking about some kind of aberrant mental state, I might be able to help. The mysteries and processes of the mind have always interested me, so I may have an idea of how to better help

TT: Would you be more comfortable explaining his symptoms to me in a private conversation, Karkat?

CG: I DON’T KNOW. DON’T TAKE IT WRONG, LALONDE, BUT I BARELY KNOW YOU

TT: I give you my word that I only intend to help and that anything you tell me will stay between us

TG: wooo hold ur horses for a mmnt

TG: i have no idea of what u r talking bout here krkles but u r wrong

TG: captor is fine

TG: more than fine actually

TG: hes establishing new records in troll smash bro right now

CG: WHAT IN THE INFINITE WELLS OF SHIT ARE YOU GARBLING ABOUT IN HERE, STRIDER??!! ARE YOU SAYING THAT YOU KNOW WHERE SOLLUX IS??!!

TG: yeah hes chilling out here w me

TG: we are testing the new TV and video games he just alchemised

TG: sacrificing ourselves for the best of humanity and trollian kind

TG: u know doing a favour to the community and also passing the time like good cool dudes ought to do

CG: YOU KEEP PUTTING LETTERS TOGETHER IN A WAY THAT MIGHT RESEMBLE WORDS BUT THAT DOESN’T MAKE ANY FUCKING SENSE. I KEEP TRYING AND MAKING EFFORTS AND YOU ARE DECEIVING ME AT ANY CORNER. CONGRATULATIONS, STRIDER, YOU HAVE BEATEN ME DOWN INTO MENTAL SUBMISSION WITH ALL YOUR STUPIDITY AND NONSENSE 

TG: u say the sweetest things

CG: SHUT UP

CG: SO, ARE YOU STILL WITH HIM? TELL ME WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW!

CG: AND YES, I NOTICED MY OWN FUCKING CONTRADICTING ORDERS THERE, JUST ANSWER ME OK?

TG: oh no dude i cant tell u that

TG: he told me that u hve been stalking him lately 

TG: following him everywhere and pestering him nonstop

TG: a dude needs his space, bro

CG: WHAT THE FUCK, STRIDER?! I’M NOT A FUCKING STALKER!!

CG: I DON’T CARE WHAT THAT FUCKASS HAS TOLD YOU BUT FORCING HIM TO LEAVE HIS RECUPERACOON ONCE EVERY TWO NIGHTS TO TAKE A SHOWER AND MAKING HIM EAT SOMETHING EDIBLE ONCE IN A WHILE IS IN NO WAY REMOTELY COMPARED TO A FUCKING STALKER BEHAVIOUR!

CG: ALSO, WHY THE FUCK DO YOU SUDDENLY CARE ABOUT HIM??!! A COUPLE OF NIGHTS AGO YOU WERE READY TO RUN HIM THROUGH YOUR SWORD, NO QUESTIONS ASKED, AND NOW YOU ARE TAKING HIS SIDE AS IF YOU WERE BEST FUCKING FRIENDS?!

TG: what can i say

TG: a few hours playing video games together makes friends of the worst enemies

CG: THAT DOESN’T MAKE ANY FUCKING SENSE AND YOU KNOW IT, STRIDER! YOU ARE NOT AS STUPID AS YOU ARE TRYING TO MAKE US BELIEVE! I’M ONTO YOU AND YOUR FAKE COOLNESS SHIT!

TG: oi! leave my coolness alone!

GC: W3LL, 1T S33MS TH4T TH3 MYST3RY H4S B33N SOLV3D, YOU 4R3 4LL MOST W3LCOM3

GC: 1M GO1NG TO GO NOW, VR1SK4 1S S3ND1NG M3 MURD3ROUS LOOKS B3C4US3 1 H4V3 B33N FOCUS3D 1N MY P4LMHUSK FOR TOO LONG

GC: K4RK4T, S3ND M3 4 PR1V4T3 M3SS4G3 N3XT T1ME 1F YOU N33D MY H3LP, BUT ONLY 1F YOU N33D 1T FOR R34L

gallowsCalibrator [GC] has left the memo

TG: wait terezi!

gallowsCalibrator [GC]  is now offline  


TG: fuck!

CG: THE FUCK?!

GA: Am I The Only Individual That Has Found Terezi’s Parting Words Remarkably Unforeseen And Suspicious

TT: You are certainly not alone in this belief Kanaya, it has been indeed quite out of her character. You wouldn’t know anything relevant to this topic, loved brother of mine?

TG: nops, no idea at all

CG: WELL, WELL, WELL, AM I SMELLING TROUBLES IN MATESPRIT PARADISE? I BELIEVE THAT I’M OWNED THE RIGHT TO SAY ‘I TOLD YOU SO’ BUT AS I AM A MAGNANIMOUS AND UNDERSTANDING TROLL, I WILL REFRAIN MYSELF OF DOING IT. YOU ARE MOST WELCOME, STRIDER

TG: dude u just said it

CG: NO, I DIDN’T

TG: u totally did it check your own text

CG: I PUT IT BETWEEN ENCLOSURE TALONS, SO IT DOESN’T COUNT

TG: my dick it doesnt count

TG: and those are fucking called quotation marks not ur weird talon thing

CG: WHY THE FUCK DID YOU NEED TO ADD YOUR HUMAN SEXUAL REPRODUCTIVE ORGAN INTO THE CONVERSATION, STRIDER?! AND DON’T TELL ME HOW TO USE MY OWN LANGUAGE WHEN YOU ARE THE ONE USING A FUCKING CHEAT TRICK TO SPEAK IT!!

TG: its just an expression dude dont read too much into it

TT: Actually, it is more of a personal choice of words than a common expression in our language. Dave, haven’t I warned you before on multiple occasions about your fixation with that word? 

TG: shut up rose

GA: I Am Sorry To Disturb This Interesting Interaction But I Would Like To Notify Karkat That I Have Already Removed The Object Blocking The Transportaliser Into Sollux Private Area And That It Should Work Now If He Wished To Try Again

GA: Now That I Have Informed Him Please Feel Free To Continue Your Debate

GA: I Believe It Was Rose's Turn To Reply To Dave's Allegation

CG: FUCK, YOU ARE  ABSOLUTELY  THE BEST, KANAYA! COMING RIGHT NOW, WAIT FOR ME

CG: AND STRIDER, I’M COMING FOR YOU NEXT!

carcinoGeneticist [CG] closed time-locked bulletin board “ _WHERE THE FUCK IS SOLLUX?!_ ” at 23:23

Dave put his Pesterchum profile offline and captchalogued his phone back into his sylladex.

“Are you done there?” he heard Captor ask.

He raised his eyes and saw that the troll had changed the video game and now he was lazily playing a block type of game. It looked like a mix of a Tetris turned 90 degrees to the side and an RPG-looking game. Every time a group of blocks or a full line was completed, the RPG chapters in the top of the screen had a power boost and released a special combo attack. It looked like a boring, low-stressing game.

“Do you want to keep playing?” asked the troll. “I have some games that we haven’t tried yet.”

“Sure,” Dave agreed, and waited until Captor’s psionics unplugged the current bug-game to keep talking. “By the way, we might have Karkat coming over soon.”

The psionics stopped for a moment but soon resumed their activity, moving the last bug-game away and bringing forth a new one. Captor’s attention, though, seemed to mostly focus on Dave now.

“Was that him?” he asked. “The one trolling you?”

“He actually created a memo to complain about you locking him up and to beg for help,” Dave replied. “Kanaya went to rescue him.”

“Of course she did,” Captor said with a giggle and rolling his eyes back. “She is so pale for him that it’s embarrassing to watch. If Karkat asked her to jump out of the meteor, she probably would do it only to make him happy.”

Well, that was really some dedication there. Dave didn’t know what _‘pale’_ meant, but it was probably another troll word for friendship, or something like that.

“He was also asking if we knew where you were,” Dave added, cautiously. “He seemed worried about you, so I told him that we were together playing games but not where we are.”

“Oh, that was nice of you, thanks,” said Captor with a small smile. “You could have told him I was here though, it’s fine. As you said, it’s not like he won’t find me easily here, and I’m not really hiding from him. I just wanted time for myself.”

Yeah, Dave had already figured that it was something like that. He observed Captor subtly, hidden behind his shades, and thought about telling him about the rest of the conversation. Karkat had said that Captor had not been well lately, but Dave hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary. The troll had been perfectly chill with him, maybe a bit too much. Captor had not moved from his spot in all the time they had been playing, using his psionics to move things around him instead of doing it himself. He also didn’t have his laptop with him, which was a bit strange because Dave had rarely seen him doing anything without a computer near him. Well, even if Karkat was right, there was nothing that Dave could do, other than stay there and keep the troll company. The new game finished its loading and Dave picked up his game controller, ready for a new round.

Karkat finally appeared in the Common Room half an hour later, followed by Kanaya and Rose, and he immediately proceeded to have his expected tantrum, with both Dave and Captor laughing at him. When Vantas ran out of air and topics to scream about, he decided that they HAD to see a movie, now that they had a functional TV. Rose and Kanaya disappeared for a bit and came back with recently alchemized pizzas, drinks, and large bowls of popcorn, while Karkat plugged one of those weird bug-things to the TV without waiting for anyone’s opinion.

That was how they ended up with everyone scattered between the two couches, empty pizza boxes and bowls of popcorn on the floor. A strange sexually violent, romantic movie played on the TV, causing Rose’s eyes to be glued to the screen, and making Karkat have watery eyes. Dave looked around and saw Kanaya and Rose sitting on the red couch sharing a blanket, keeping a respectable distance between them. Dave was sharing the other couch with the two troll guys. He was lying down on one of the couch’s arms, with Karkat in the centre hugging a pillow to his chest, and Captor snoring against the other arm. Dave had stopped following the movie’s plot ages ago, and now he was simply enjoying the fact that he was watching a movie with his friends and almost-friends. It was his first time doing something like that, and a small part of him, the one that still looked like a scared child, was enjoying the moment. 

He smiled and closed his eyes, happy to not be alone anymore.


	8. PaLeBrO

honk

HONK

honk

HOOONK

ShUt Up!!

honkhonkhonkhonkhonkhonkhonkhonkhonkhonk

HONK, HONK, HOOOOOOOONK

ShUt ThE MoThErFuCkInG uP!!

what is your motherfucking problem motherfucker?

CAN’T A BROTHER PASS HIS TIME LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER DOES?

honk

HONK

I aM tIrEd SiCk Of YoU jAbBeRiNg AnD hOnKiNg FoR nIgHtS wItHoUt StOpPiNg FoR a SiNgLe fUcKiNg MiNuTe, MoThErFuCkEr!

what else a motherfucker can do to pass the time in this motherfucker empty closet?

WHAT ELSE A MOTHERFUCKER CAN DO WHEN TRAPPED LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER CHEESEBEAST?!

this is your fault

YOU MADE US MOTHERFUCKING FAIL!

YoU mAdE mE aTtAcK mY pAlEbRoThEr!

that heretic mutant should be dead by now

HE WOULD BE DEAD IF YOU HAD NOT FAILED AGAIN!

I dIdN’t WaNt To KiLl KaRbRo!

you already tried once

YOU ARE TOO MOTHERFUCKING LATE FOR REGRETS NOW!

YoU dId It, NoT mE

you have gone soft my brother

FIRST YOU LET THE STUPID FAKE BUFFOON REVEAL YOUR POSITION

then you are knocked out by the blind teal-blooded

AND NOW YOU ARE SUBMITTING TO THE MOTHERFUCKER SPIDERTROLL!

I aM nOt MoThErFuCkInG sOfT!

aNd I aM nOt MoThErFuCkInG sUbMiTtInG tO hEr!

WhEn I BrEaK Up Of HeRe, I wIlL hUnT tHeM dOwN aNd KiLl AlL oF tHeM oNe By OnE

bEgGiNnInG wItH tHe MoThErFuCkEr ThAt ToOk My MiRaClEs AwAy!

good, that’s good my invertebrother

ALL OF THEM WILL DIE

and we will use their blood to paint our miracles on the walls

THEY WILL PAY FOR WHAT THEY HAD DONE TO US!

SpIdErTrOlL wIlL bE tHe NeXt

ShE wIlL pAy FoR kEePiNg Us HeRe AnD fOr DaRiNg To ConTrOl Us InTo SeRvInG hEr

AnD fOr CuLlInG oUr WiCkEd BrOtHeR

yes

MOTHERFUCKING YES

after her it will be the green-blood

EVEN NOW SHE IS RAGING AND HAVING MURDERING FEELINGS ABOUT US

she have to go next

AfTeR hEr, It WiLl Be EaSy To KiLl The FeMalE hUmAn AnD tHe MuStArD bLoOd

ThEy Are WeAk AnD hElPlEsS

that sounds amazing, my brother

THAT SOUNDS ALMOST MIRACULOUS, MOTHERFUCKER

or it would if the miracles weren’t fake

IF ALL THE MOTHERFUCKING MIRACLES WEREN’T FAKE!

ThE mIrAcLeS aRe GoNe BuT wE cAn MaKe OuR oWn

We CaN mOtHeRfUcKiNg MaKe OuR oWn CoLoUrFuL mIrAcLeS!

honk

HONK

that is amazing my brother, however i noticed you missed someone

I FUCKING NOTICED THAT YOU FORGOT THE MUTANT ONE

are you trying to trick me, motherfucker?

ARE YOU MOTHERFUCKING TAKING ME FOR A FOOL?!

No, We ArE nOt KiLliNg OuR pAlEbRoThEr

So YoU cAn ShUt YoUr MoThErFuCkInG MoUtH oR i WiLl MaKe YoU!

what are you going to do motherfucker?

HOW ARE YOU GOING TO STOP ME?!

i am you

AND YOU ARE MOTHERFUCKING ME!

I wIlL bUrY yOu So MoThErFuCkEr DoWn AgAiN tHaT yOu WiLl NeVeR sEe BlOoD

i StIlL hAvE sOmE sOpOr PiEs In My BlOcK

yOu ArE hErE bEcAuSe I lEt YoU, mOtHeRfUcKeR

you will need to break out of here first my brother

AND YOU FUCKED UP YOUR OPPORTUNITY LAST TIME

they will be more cautious now 

YOU FAILED US, MOTHERFUCKER

SeRkEt WiLl LeT hEr GuArD dOwN eVeNtUaLlY

tHe OtHeRs WiLl ToO aFtEr SoMe TiMe

the blue blooded one believes that she has complete control over us

SHE MOTHERFUCKING BELIEVES SHE IS ABOVE US!

we still need to stop her from controlling us again, though

AND THEN WE MAKE HER PAY FOR HER AUDACITY

We WaIt UnTiL sHe CaMeS tO bRinG uS fOoD

wE lEt HeR pUt Us To SlEeP aNd OpEn ThE dOoR

aNd ThEn We AwAkE aNd KiLl HeR

yeeeeeeees!

SHE HAS TO PAY FOR EVER THINKING OF CONTROLLING US

aiming so much higher than her motherfucking status

DARING TO TOUCH A PURPLE-BLOOD MIND

ShE wIlL pAy FoR AlL aNd EaCh HuMiLiAtiOn

AlL oF tHeM wIlL pAy

what about the mutant blood my brother?

HE IS AN ABERRATION AND HE MUST DIE

No

He Is OuR pAlEbRo AnD hIs PlAcE iS aT OuR sIdE

the mutant has betrayed us

HE LEFT US IN THE MOTHERFUCKING SPIDER HANDS

ThE oThErS mAdE hIm Do It

BuT hE cAmE bAcK fOr Us, He StIlL pItIeS uS

hE iS a PrIsOnEr ToO

tHe OtHeRs ArE sTrOnGeR tHaN hIm

he ran away from us

THE FUCKER MUSTARD-BLOOD TOOK HIM FROM US

his blood would have been so beautiful in our wall

THE MOST FUCKING BEAUTIFUL OF ALL OF THEM

He WaS sCaReD bEcAuSe YoU aTtAcKeD hIm

OuR sMaLl PaLeBrO hAs AlWaYs BeEn So EaSy To ScArE

tHaTs WhY hE iS gOinG aLoNg WiTh ThE oThErS

hE iS tOo ScArEd To FiGhT tHeM

but we can save him from them

WE CAN KILL ALL OF THEM

and let palebro see so that he won’t be scared anymore

SO HE WON’T BE MOTHERFUCKING SCARED OF ANYTHING

YeAh

We ArE gEtTiNg OuR pAlEbRo BaCk

and if he is too scared to come with us?

IF THE OTHERS HAD MOTHERFUCKING SPONGEWASHED HIM?

ThEn We FoRcE hIm To SeE tHe MoThErFuCkInG tRuTh

AnD tAkE hIm BaCk AnYwAy

:o)

:o)

honk

HONK

HoNk


	9. BLUE MOOD

_“You have been a pain in my ass since the moment we first met, but this time you have gone too far!” he said while keeping the shorter troll restrained against a wall with one prong._

_“And what are you going to do about that?” taunted his rival, showing his teeth and sinking his claws in his extended arm. “You are always whining and threatening me, but that's all you ever do, you coward!”_

_Both trolls were showing their teeth threateningly at this point, angry growls echoing in the empty room. Their weapons were abandoned on the floor, tainted with blood from their previous fight, and both of their bodies were full of marks and superficial cuts. The tension in the air could be cut with a dagger, charged with sweeps of restrained rivalry and attraction._

_“I really hate you,” he growled before grabbing the other’s horns with his free prong and forcing the other’s pan back, exposing his neck._

_“Not as much as I hate you,” was the other’s answer._

_They stayed like that for a few seconds, looking at each other with pure hate shining like fire in their glance nuggets. This moment had been long coming, their rivalry had been intense since the first time they met when they were only wigglers. It had grown with time, sweep after sweep, until their hate for each other consumed them both. After sweeps dancing around the subject, it had finally reached the point of no return. With a prong still grabbing the other’s horns, he bent down, ready to bite the other’s neck and…_

There was a loud snore and Karkat almost jumped out of the lounge plank, averting his glance nuggets from the screen for the few seconds needed to miss the first pitch bite of Teidru and Sedceh. When he realised that the sound had come from a sleeping Sollux instead of an angry wild clawbeast, he looked back at the TV, where the movie had already moved on and was now showing the other principal couple. Fuck, he had missed it.

“You fucker!” protested Karkat in a soft voice. “Now I have to rewind and see the whole scene again!”

Sollux simply snored softly again in response, his pan resting on Karkat’s lap while he slept. Karkat squinted his glance nuggets, suspicious, and poked the other troll’s cheek. Sollux seemed asleep, but it wouldn’t be that surprising to find him faking to be asleep just to intentionally interrupt the best moments of Karkat’s favourite movie. He was that annoying, after all.

“Hey, are you awake?” he whispered while still poking the other’s face.

Sollux only groaned and moved his thinkpan away from the finger bothering him, a gentle wave of psionics pushing it away from his face. Karkat sighed, he was really asleep then. The movie had kept moving along in the background while he messed with Sollux, and now they were getting dangerously close to the flush makeout scene. Karkat looked around the lounge plank, trying to find the control remote, but it had disappeared magically. He finally localised it on the floor, just out of reach.

“Of fucking course!” he complained in the lowest voice he could manage. “The universe is again punishing me for the outrage of daring to be alive!” he kept saying while he tried to stretch his strut stick and reach the remote. “Why make anything easy for Karkat Vantas?! Let’s make things difficult for him even when he is only trying to see a fucking movie!”

“Shut up, KK,” groaned Sollux with a sleepy voice and his glance nuggets still closed. “And stop moving.”

“You shut up, nookfucker,” replied Karkat, not worrying about keeping his volume low now that Sollux was awake. “And get up already, I can’t reach the remote with your heavy pan all over me.”

The sleepy troll opened one glance nugget for a moment, illuminating the floor lightly in red, and closed it again. He moved a bit as if he were searching for a more comfortable position, with his pan still over Karkat’s strut sticks and his lanky body stretched along the lounge plank. 

“Oi!” protested Karkat, poking at Sollux’s face again, “Get up, lazyass! You have been sleeping for too long!”

The other troll only groaned and turned a bit, hiding his face against his lap and exposing one of his pointy auricular sponge clots in the process. Karkat flicked lightly at the top of it, where he knew it would be more painful.

“Ouch!” complained Sollux, covering his auricular sponge with a prong. “That hurt, KK!”

“You are such a wriggler sometimes,” replied Karkat in a mocking tone. “Get up from my lap, fuckass! You are slobbering all over my pants!”

Sollux’s pan moved again, and this time it was the bright glowing blue glance nugget that looked at him for a few seconds before the troll hid his face again. Karkat was getting ready to flick the exposed auricular sponge clot again when he felt something sharp against his strut stick. Various sharp things actually. Luckily, the pressure was not enough to go through his pants, but the threat was clear.

“Tell me you just didn’t bite me, Sollux!” he exclaimed, horrified. “Are you out of your mind? I know you are thicksponged and an antisocial nerd, but in normal troll’s society, biting is a private matter!” he yelled. “You don’t go around biting trolls unless you mean it!”

It was true. Even though trolls were a fairly aggressive race, some actions were only socially accepted in dead-or-live emergency situations or between quadrantmates. Sure, you could beat the hell out of someone, make them explode, use a weapon on them or even use your claws, but biting was reserved for kismesis. Biting, in general, was out of limits, but a bite in the neck was especially considered as a declaration of hate. It was actually quite romantic . There were similar gestures for each quadrant: papping one’s cheek, for example, was a pale thing, while exposing one’s neck in submission was a flush gesture. A bit like how kissing was for humans, apparently. Millions of romantic movies had focused around the first bite between kismesis, or the first pap that established a moirallegiance, heightening the romance of the gesture. It was not something to joke around with.

“I didn’t bite you, KK,” lied Sollux, turning his pan to him with a mocking smile. “You sure you didn’t imagine it? You probably have been fantasizing of me drooling on your pants for sweeps.”

Oh, no. Oh fucking no! Karkat would not allow this poor excuse of a troll to joke around with that topic! Also, what if Karkat liked to dream about his future quadrantmates when he was a grub?! He was a romantic troll, okay?! Sollux was as annoying as wingbugs in the middle of the second summer, but he had never been serious when he pictured him as a possible quadrantmate in any of those fantasies! As if! The weird dreams he had been having lately, when not ending in a dream bubble, didn’t mean anything at all! It was merely a consequence of being trapped in the meteor with such a small number of sentient beings. He had dreamed about almost anyone at this point, luckily with the exception of Vriska, and never something as taboo as biting! So, dreaming about having Sollux as a kismesis didn’t mean he wanted it in real life! And even in the remote case that he might want to be Sollux’s kismesis, it was not as if it was going to ever happen, so there was no point in even considering it!

“Fuck off, liar!” he yelled and tried to push the other troll out of his lap. “Don’t fucking joke about these things, Sollux!”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry,” answered Sollux, using his psionics to keep himself on the lounge plank. “I get it, no talking about biting unless I mean it. Sheesh, you are so sensitive sometimes, KK!”

Wait, what did he mean with that? Was he suggesting he might mean it at some point? Karkat felt his face getting warmer, which was a clear sign that he was letting the joke affect him more than he wanted. He pushed harder and managed to overcome the thin layer of psionics Sollux was using, almost sending the other troll to the floor. Unfortunately, Sollux managed to grab Karkat’s shirt and pulled on it to keep himself from falling out of the lounge plank. 

“Oi, let go of my shirt!” complained Karkat. “You will tear it!”

“Then stop trying to push me off, KK!” argued back Sollux.

There was a spark of psionics and Karkat’s prongs were forced away from the other troll’s body against his will. Sollux used that instant to properly climb back onto the lounge plank, this time facing Karkat, and wrap his arms firmly around Karkat’s waist before stopping his psionics. The moment he was released, Karkat’s prongs automatically went back to grab the back of Sollux’s shirt, trying to throw him to the floor again. It was fruitless.

“You fucking cheater!” he protested, still trying to free himself. “Using your psionics on me is a low trick, Sollux!”

“Don’t invent shitty excuses, KK,” replied Sollux, his face firmly against Karkat’s shirt. “It’s not my fault if you are such a loser.”

“I will show you who is a loser here!” he yelled, moving one of his prongs to grab Sollux’s horns and pulling on them. “Let me go already! I’m not your clawbeast plushie!”

“Ouch! Let go of my horns!” protested Sollux. “Seriously, why are you always grabbing them? Is that a kink, KK?” mocked the gold-blooded troll in a clear attempt to conceal his painful grimace. “Is there anything you want to confess to the pailing drones?”

Karkat’s thinksponge needed a few seconds to understand what he was insinuating, but when he finally got the hint, he released Sollux’s horns immediately. He hadn’t even realised the implications of pulling someone else’s horns like that. It wasn’t as bad as biting but there were some pitch associations with that kind of thing, too. After all, a troll’s horns were only useful for intimidation or during a fight. There were no nerves inside the horns, only insensitive bone extensions, which was useful during fights. However, they were attached to the nugbone and the base of them could hurt when pulled. It was not such a taboo gesture like biting, but it was a popular thing in troll pitch porn. As always, troll porn made almost everything uncomfortable.

Karkat tried to conceal his embarrassment with an angry growl but he could feel his face burning. He was probably completely red. A familiar rush of panic almost overcame him when he realised that anyone would know his blood colour simply by looking at his face at that moment. 

It was then that Sollux finally released Karkat’s clothes and began to pull away from his lap. Loud alarm bells sounded in Karkat’s sponge. He could not let him look at his face right now! He put his prongs in the back of Sollux’s thinkpan and pushed him against his lap, effectively preventing the other troll from seeing his red face. 

“What the fuck, KK?!” Sollux protest was muffled by the clothes against his face.

Karkat kept his prongs on Sollux’s thinkpan and looked around the block in a panicked rush. They were alone. He closed his glance nuggets and tried to calm himself with slow, controlled inhalations. It was fine, they were alone and nobody had seen his red face, he was safe. It wasn’t like there were fucking culling drones anymore, ready to smash him against the ground and vaporise him with their lasers to the mere hint of red or a too high body heat. It was only him and Sollux, and the other troll wouldn’t do anything to him. If his hatefriend were to cull him, he would have done it sweeps ago when Karkat first confessed his most shameful mutation.

“KK?” he heard Sollux ask in a soft voice.

Karkat opened his eyes again, a bit calmer, and released the other troll’s thinkpan. His hatefriend raised his pan to look at him, but Karkat couldn’t do the same, too ashamed of his little panic attack. Sollux moved away from him slowly until he was almost on the other end of the lounge plank. Karkat raised his strut pods into the lounge and hugged his knees against his chest. Nobody said anything, the silence being interrupted only by the movie that was still playing in the background. 

“I’m sorry,” Sollux said then. “I don’t know what I did or said to make you freak out like this, but it’s clear that I did something wrong.”

Karkat looked up, only to see the other troll with his pan down, bright glance nuggets illuminating the lounge plank and angry fist almost tearing the furniture’s cover. He was still thinking what to say when Sollux kept talking at a rushed pace.

“Was it the bite? Or the claws?” he asked more to himself than to Karkat. “Or something I said? Who I am trying to fool?! Of course it was some of the shit that I always say! It’s not like I ever say anything without insulting someone or screwing everything up!” he continued, in an increasingly accelerated and angry voice. “I don’t know how you or anyone can stand me for more than two seconds! I certainly can’t stand myself! I’m always messing things up like this or hurting someone, or even fucking killing them! I killed AA and I almost killed you too, KK! I’m the worst troll ever!”

Uh oh. Karkat finally snapped out completely of his own panic when he realised that Sollux was falling into one of his self-deprecating vicious states. Fuck! He knew that sometimes Sollux was like that, blaming himself for every small thing that had happened in his life and hating himself to the point that he stopped eating or even injured himself. He knew that his hatefriend had been in one of his blue moods for at least a week, and he had been trying to avoid it getting worse. In the end, he had ended causing it himself.

“Sollux, hey, Sollux,” he called to him in his softest voice. “It’s okay, you didn’t do anything wrong. I freaked up for stupid shit reasons by myself, like always.”

Karkat moved closer to Sollux but he didn’t attempt to touch him, he learned sweeps ago that it was not always the best idea. Instead of that, he grabbed one of the blankets that were always lying around and he let it fall around Sollux carefully. Like all lowbloods, Karkat knew how comforting it was to have something warm to hide under when feeling unsafe. Sollux was not different in that aspect. The blanket fell a bit off of him, but it was instantly grabbed by his psionics and brought back up until it rested over Sollux’s posture pole and shoulders. The gold-blooded troll hadn’t raised his thinkpan yet.

“I know you are just saying it to make me feel better,” pouted Sollux with a sad voice. “I’m sorry for whatever I did that hurt you. You don’t have to stay here, KK, I don’t deserve it.”

“Oi! Stop saying such bullshit things, Sollux!” Karkat snapped, grimacing when he saw Sollux hunching more into himself at his loud voice. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell at you. I can’t really control it sometimes,” he apologised before continuing in a softer voice. “Can I come closer?”

Sollux didn’t say anything at first, hugging himself and still avoiding nugget to nugget direct visual contact. After a few moments, though, Karkat felt the sensation of a thin layer of psionics surrounding him and pulling him weakly towards his hatefriend. He smiled and came a bit closer, sitting on his heels a few millimetres away from Sollux.

“You didn’t do anything to scare me, Sollux. As if you could do it even if you tried!” mocked Karkat with a soft voice. “I got embarrassed from something you said, and then I realised that I was probably completely red,” he explained. “I kind of freaked out a bit about that. You know, the whole _‘showing my blood colour on my face’_ thing.”

At that, Sollux finally raised his thinkpan and looked at him with a confused expression. Karkat sighed and congratulated himself mentally at that small progress.

“I already know your blood is red, KK,” Sollux said in a soft voice. “You told me that sweeps ago. I’m a mutant too, I’m not going to kill you if you draw a bit of blood!”

“I know, I know,” Karkat agreed. “But sometimes I can’t help it, okay? I start bleeding or become self-conscious about another of my multiple cullable traits, and my sponge just freezes.”

Sollux was still hunched a bit on himself but now he looked a bit calmer. He probably was realising that there was nothing to feel guilty for. And the fact that Karkat was making a fool of himself explaining one of his weaknesses was probably helping too. 

“You mean that sometimes your sponge is not completely frozen?” Sollux asked with a small smile.

Karkat felt his blood pusher squeeze at Sollux’s feeble attempt to mock him. Gods! Just when he was beginning to feel like he completely hated Sollux in a non-platonic way, he did something as pitiable as this! He tried to control his emotions, tried to stop feeling pity for the mess of a troll in front of him and hate him instead for being so defenceless, as he should, but he couldn’t. Fuck, this was the whole vacillating-on-Terezi thing again! Stop pitying the annoying troll, Karkat! Oh, who was he trying to deceive? It was already too late for that.

“Sollux, is it okay if I touch you?” he asked in his softest voice, trying to repress the urge to hug the other troll. “Or would you prefer to be left alone?”

The gold-blooded troll bit his lip for a moment, the light in his blue glance nugget being mysteriously stronger than the one from his red nugget, as it always happened when he was like this. Finally, Sollux moved forward, almost floating with his psionics until he could hide his face against Karkat’s front. His arms wrapped around Karkat’s back and soon they were hugging each other tightly, Karkat’s shirt getting suspiciously wet. He didn’t say anything, not complaining for once, and soon they were laying together in the lounge plank, under a small pile of blankets. Karkat’s pan was screaming at him that this was almost too pale, but he ignored it and closed his glance nuggets.

Kanaya found them hours later, both asleep but still hugging each other.

* * *

After that, Sollux’s mood got worse. He had been oversleeping, passive and barely eating for a week already, but now he was almost in hibernation mode. If Karkat didn’t physically drag Sollux out of his recuperacoon, he could stay there for full nights without even trying to get up. Karkat was forced to argue for hours with Sollux to make him eat even a single toast, and he had to literally poke him constantly to stop the other troll from falling asleep even when standing on his strut pods. Sollux’s quickly changing mood didn’t help, either. He could go from being so sad that he was crying yellow waterfalls, to being an ungrateful, irritating bastard in the blink of the nugget.

It was not the first time that Karkat had to grubsit his hatefriend like this, but he had forgotten how tiring it was. He had temporarily moved into Sollux’s section to be closer to him, but he had barely been able to sleep in a week because he was worried that his hatefriend would do something stupid like fall completely inside his coon in his sleep and drown in his own totally-not-sopor slime. The lack of sleep plus the constant supervision and the arguing every time that he tried to make Sollux do anything other than sleep, were taking his tool in Karkat. He was always tired and irritated now, almost as much as he was during the game, but without the fear of death and the responsibility of leadership to keep him focused. 

Eventually, the other residents of the meteor noticed how bad the situation was, just as Karkat had expected. For the most part, everyone threw them weird looks when they saw them either cuddling or arguing before disappearing quickly from the block. Strider once literally turned around on the spot and left the common block without a single word when he saw them cuddling on the lounge plank. Terezi tended to make a joke or two without really any bite to them before leaving, and even Vriska seemed uncomfortable with the situation and prefered to leave them alone after a couple of halfhearted insults. The blue-blooded troll avoidance approach to the situation had been quite unexpected, but Karkat wasn’t going to complain about having a bit of good luck for once. Lalonde and Kanaya, however, were as meddlesome as ever.

It had begun with such subtle things that Karkat didn’t even realise what was happening. Kanaya began to _‘casually’_ be in the meal block just when Karkat went there to cook something edible for him and Sollux, and every time she had _‘casually’_ made more food than she could eat, and she always said something like _‘wouldn’t you mind helping me finish it, Karkat_ ?’. Then, Lalonde appeared one day with a brand new alien machine that she explained was called a _‘coffee maker’_ and that apparently made the only drink capable of keeping Sollux awake for two full hours, which was a huge improvement to Karkat’s poking technique. It got to the point where suddenly one of them was always in the empty lounge plank, reading a book or offering to put a movie. Sometimes it was the both of them staying near and providing food, especially when Karkat couldn’t move due to having a Solluxbeast attached to his side with no intention of letting him go. 

It was getting a bit annoying really, Karkat didn’t like all the sneaking around and faking of doing things _'casually’_ instead of coming out and offering their help directly. However, he would have probably refused their help if they had offered it directly, though, mostly out of pride. It was for this reason that he didn’t say anything and let the two girls help while pretending that they weren’t. Everyone knew that he knew the truth but nobody said anything about it, it was a double-sneaking-around game. He was sure that Lalonde was loving the situation but it was not helping Karkat’s mood. He was still tired and irritated constantly, pissed off with Lalonde and Kanaya sneaky games, angry with Sollux for being so difficult, and even more angry with himself for being angry with Sollux when it was not really his fault. He kept quiet about it, though, and tried to repress all of his annoyance and anger with the situation. Until, one day, Karkat finally lost his temper on the troll who least deserved it.

“Would you fucking eat your breakfast for once without me having to force-feed you, Sollux?!” he screamed, tired and angry and frustrated. “You are such an ungrateful bastard! Are you doing this on purpose?! Do you enjoy having me tending to every one of your stupid whims?!” he kept yelling, barely aware of his own words. “I have been awake for weeks just to make sure that you didn’t fucking drown in your own coon! I have had to fucking fight with you for weeks for you to fucking eat and take a fucking shower! And you thank all my efforts by being such an irritating and contrary bastard! Well, fuck you! I’m done with it and I’m done with you!”

“KARKAT!!” 

He turned towards Kanaya, surprised to hear her screaming at him. The troll girl was standing near the meal block, where she had been cooking breakfast for everyone. She looked really angry, with her arms folded over her rumble spheres and her unnatural skin glowing less than usual. Under her scolding look, Karkat felt like a grub being reprimanded by his lusus. He turned back to Sollux, who was sitting in the blue lounge plank with a toast in a nutrition plateau on the coffee table in front of him. A single look at his pusherbroken, sad face took away all of Karkat’s anger, leaving only regret and guilt. Fuck, he had messed up again. It was not Sollux’s fault, Karkat knew that better than anyone else, and he didn’t mean what he had just said.

“Sollux,” he whispered, his guilt increasing when he saw the other troll hugging himself and trying to make himself look smaller. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”

“I believe that it would be best if you leave now, Vantas,” he heard Lalonde say in a cold voice from where she was sitting near Sollux. “And don’t even think to come back until you have cooled your head.”

There was the small hint of a threat in the human’s voice and her glance nuggets were throwing invisible daggers towards Karkat. A small part of his sponge took note of her protective reaction, surprised, but the majority of it was busy reminding him how awful and horrible he was. He looked at Sollux again, noticing that the light from his red glance nugget was almost undetectable under the potent light of the blue one, and realised that he didn’t know how to help him anymore. A prong with large, thin fingers grabbed his arm gently and, when he turned his pan, he saw that it was Kanaya.

“Rose is right, Karkat, you need to take a break,” she told him, again with her gentle tone. “You haven’t been sleeping much lately, right?”

“But, Sollux…” he tried to protest.

“Rose will stay with him,” she replied, before turning back to the human. “You don’t mind, right, Rose?”

“Of course I don’t mind staying with him a bit longer, Kanaya,” the human replied with a more gentle voice than the one she used with Karkat. “I consider Sollux my friend too, and I will be happy to help him in the best way I can.”

Karkat looked back at the human girl when he heard that. A friend? Since when? He knew that Sollux and Lalonde had spent a lot of time together working on the codes list, but the troll hadn’t said anything about being friends with her. However, knowing how easily humans gave away their friendship to anything that breathed, it was not that surprising.

“All right, I will come back in a couple of hours so you can rest too, Rose,” replied Kanaya. “Please, let me know if you need help at any moment.”

“I will do that, thanks Kanaya,” smiled Lalonde.

With that, Kanaya put her other prong on Karkat’s posture pole, and gently but firmly pushed him away, ignoring his halfhearted complaints. Kanaya brought them into her own respiteblock, even holding up Karkat for a moment to put him down on one of her softest piles. She left him there and moved away, looking for something in one of her wardrobes. Karkat let himself fall further in the pile of clothes and pillows, relaxing for the first time in nights. It was strange how he was able to relax more in one of Kanaya’s piles than in his own, he didn’t know if it was the smell or the softness, but he felt better here, safer. 

Kanaya came back with a grey blanket and put it over Karkat’s body before sitting in a small pillow in front of him, keeping a bit of distance from the pile. Something in Karkat’s blood pusher squeezed when he saw her so far away from him. It was not the first time that Karkat had been in Kanaya’s respiteblock, or even resting in one of her piles, but she had never sat on the pile with him. He understood, sitting together in a pile with another troll was a moirail’s thing, and even when both he and Kanaya had had some pale moments before, they had never acknowledged them. Karkat cared deeply about Kanaya and he had been thinking about becoming moirails with her, but he knew that there wasn’t anything in him worthy of her pity. She was just a good friend and he would need to have enough with that.

“Are you feeling better, Karkat?” asked Kanaya with a soft look in her glance nuggets.

“Yeah,” whispered Karkat, feeling his cheeks getting hotter with the intimacy of the moment. “I’m sorry about what I said before. I really didn’t mean it.”

“I know, sweetheart,” replied the girl with a smile. “You have been taking care of Sollux on your own for weeks, without sleeping or properly eating yourself, Am I right?”

Her words were said in a gentle voice but there was a hint of reprimand in them that made Karkat feel ashamed of himself. It was true, he had been bothering and pestering Sollux about not taking proper care of himself when he had been doing exactly the same. He was such a hypocrite.

“I was worried about him,” he tried to excuse himself. “I didn’t even realise how bad it was getting.”

Kanaya’s look got even softer and she moved an arm towards his face tentatively. Her prong stopped just a millimetre away from his cheek for a few seconds as if she was debating on papping him, and finally it moved higher to pet lightly the hair behind his auricular sponge instead. Karkat released the breath he didn’t realise he was holding and tilted his pan a bit to give Kanaya more area to touch. He closed his glance nuggets and tried to contain the pleasured purr in his chest. This felt so nice. Kanaya’s claws were dangerously close to his neck and nugbone but he wasn’t even a bit scared, knowing somehow that she wouldn’t hurt him. Was this how it felt to be papped? To have someone care deeply for you?

“Oh, love, you are such a mess,” whispered Kanaya, making Karkat release an involuntary pitiful shrill. “You have no idea how much I pity you, darling.”

Karkat opened his glance nuggets at that, looking at Kanaya astonished. Had he heard it correctly? Had Kanaya truly said the p-word?! To him?! There was a look of surprise in the girl’s face, as if she just realised what she had said. Oh. His body reacted before his sponge, letting go an even stronger pleading shrill and raising a prong towards her. He wanted her closer, he wanted her on the pile next to him.

“Kanaya, please,” he pleaded to her. “Please, come here.”

Kanaya’s skin began glowing brighter than ever before, a reaction that Karkat had learnt to associate with her feeling embarrassed. It was clear by her grimace that her uncontrollable luminescence bothered her, and Karkat felt a prick of pity for her. She had died and become something strange, something that was no troll or even alive. Something she had no control over and probably scared her. There was not a lot to pity in a self-sufficient troll like Kanaya, but her clear discomfort with her own new body and race.

“Are you sure?” asked Kanaya, even when she was already crawling closer to the pile. “I don’t want to impose my feelings on you, I’m okay with keeping things like this if it would be easier for you.”

Oh. That was something else pitiful that he had somehow always known was there but didn’t really realise until now: Kanaya was too selfless. She was always like that, giving all of her help to everyone to the point of almost auspisticing each and every small fight, but she never expected anything in return. She gave and gave and never got anything back. That was unfair, she deserved better, she deserved everything. Karkat raised himself high enough from the pile to be able to reach Kanaya’s waist with his prong and pulled her back on the pile with him until they were both lying there face to face. The fact that Kanaya had let him manoeuvre her like that without even complaining made Karkat’s pity for her increase tenfold.

“Stop being so selfless, Kanaya,” he scolded her. “If we are really going to do this, it will have to be a two-way deal.”

“It’s okay,” muttered the girl. “I just want to take care of you. You don’t have to do anything else than let me do that.”

Karkat looked at her beautiful face for a moment, incredulous of what he was hearing. What she was suggesting was a corruption of the whole concept of moirallegiance! It was supposed to be a mutual agreement where both trolls cared for and protected each other! Not something one-sided! That idea was more similar to auspisticism than moirallegiance! Was that how Kanaya saw the pale quadrant? Or was it something that someone else had instilled on her before?! Karkat felt a strong wave of anger at that idea.

“Who was it?” he asked, almost shaking with his fury. “Who was the one that mistreated your diamond so bad that you don’t expect anyone to pity you anymore?!”

Kanaya’s glow got even brighter and she avoided Karkat’s nuggets. So it was true, then. Someone had really hurt her like that. His fury increased but he tried to control himself, the last thing he wanted was to make Kanaya think it was her fault. He had already messed up once tonight.

“It’s okay Kanaya, it’s not your fault,” he told her in the softest voice he could manage, moving a bit closer to her. “Just tell me who I need to punish for treating you so poorly.”

Kanaya looked back at him, and Karkat’s blood froze when he saw green tears barely contained in her glance nuggets. He had never seen Kanaya cry before and the sight was like a dagger piercing his chest. His prong raised from her waist and, before he realised what he was doing, he papped her cheek.

“Shoosh,” he whispered softly. “It’s okay, I’m here, I will take care of you now.”

“Oh, Karkat,” replied Kanaya, trying to hide her tears behind her prongs. “I’m sorry, this is so embarrassing. I was supposed to be the one taking care of you and instead I’m forcing you to see this.”

Karkat kept his papping while he moved closer and kissed Kanaya’s thinkpan front in the same spot as she did to him so many months ago. That had been on the first night of their journey through paradox space, and it had been the exact moment when he realised that he craved Kanaya’s pity like how he had never craved anyone else’s before. It had almost been pity at first sight, but by the fact that there was not a lot to pity her for. She was strong, beautiful, nice, independent, higher in the hemospectrum than him but not high enough to be a psychopath, and everyone loved her. At first sight, Kanaya was perfect, but he was finally realising that she was as broken inside as anyone else.

“Shoosh,” he repeated. “You are not forcing me to do anything, Kanaya. I want to help you, I want to take care of you. Please, let me do it.”

Kanaya nodded and moved closer until her face rested on Karkat’s chest. He felt his blood pusher skip over a pushbeat, and he rested his thinkpan on hers, careful to not put any pressure on her large horns. They stayed like that for some time, hugging softly on Kanaya’s pile, both of them purring softly. Karkat felt as if he was floating, sleepy but at the same time aware of every point of contact with Kanaya’s body. It was the most peaceful he had ever been.

“It was Vriska,” he heard Kanaya whisper, awaking him slightly from his slumber. 

“Mmm?” he muttered, his sponge still working at a groundbug speed.

“I was moirails with Vriska for sweeps but it was never like this,” Kanaya sighed. “We never met or even touched each other, it was only us talking through Trollian.”

Karkat’s glancebrows furrowed, his sponge fighting with the fog to remember their previous conversation. Right, he had asked Kanaya who had taken her diamond for granted without giving anything back. Figures it was Serket, it was just her style. It would be hard to kill her, Karkat would need to be creative.

“I didn’t know you were moirails,” he commented in his softest voice, raising a pong to play with Kanaya’s hair.

“Neither of us wanted anyone to know, so it was kept a secret,” the girl explained with a soft purr at Karkat’s patting. “Our arrangement was mostly me trying to control her more violent tendencies and to moderate between her and Tavros. Obviously, I failed to do that in the end.”

“So you were her moirail and her auspice,” resumed Karkat. “What did she do for you?”

“She contacted me and told me of her crazy murder plans before doing anything,” Kanaya explained, her own prongs petting Karkat’s back. “I managed to stop her most of the time, but I couldn’t stop her from paralyzing Tavros. Everything went wrong after that.”

“That was you doing something for her, Kanaya,” insisted Karkat. “When she contacted you she was only begging for your attention and not doing anything for you. Did she ever ask about your feelings? Or at least wondered if you were alright?”

“I…” Kanaya stammered. “She told me I was too meddlesome, sometimes.”

Fuck, that was bad. Karkat let go a pitiful shrill and Kanaya answered with her own. He pushed her a bit off him until he could see her glance nuggets again. She was not crying anymore and she had a glassy look in her nuggets that he was sure he also had in his. They were both in a pale fog mental state, which had left them both relaxed and malleable. It was supposedly normal in emotional piles between moirails, but Karkat had never felt it before. It was almost scary, being so defenceless and open with someone else. Now he better understood the foggy stupid faces the actors made in all those pale romance movies. 

“Right, there are several things wrong with what I’m hearing here Kanaya, and I want you to listen to me, okay?” he began in the same gentle voice he didn’t even know he could do. “First of all, calling you _‘meddlesome’_ sometimes it’s not proper moirail care. If that was the only thing she did, Serket was a horrible moirail to you and I will kill her later for ever hurting you like this,” he almost growled before continuing. “Second, you are the most selfless, gentle, and caring troll I have ever known and we are all lucky to have you taking care of us,” he smiled when Kanaya’s almost dulled skin went bright again. “And third, fuck her! You deserve much better than that, and I hope she has a painful death someday for making you go through this!”

Kanaya smiled at him softly, her prongs moving towards Karkat’s face and papping him gently a couple of times. Karkat felt his bones melt and his anger evaporate at the pleasurable sensation. He shrieked softly and his purr intensified.

“Calm down, sweetheart,” whispered Kanaya. “My failed previous moirallegiance was not only Vriska’s fault.”

“So, not killing her?” Karkat asked in a disappointed voice, even when he knew how difficult and dangerous it would have been.

“I would prefer if you didn’t endanger yourself like that, dear,” insisted Kanaya. “Especially when, as I said, the blame is not only on her.”

“How so?” he asked, wanting to understand better what happened to Kanaya in the past.

“She was neglectful, true, but I was harbouring red feelings for her secretly and I was scared of her realising it,” she explained. “As a consequence, I never really opened up to her as I was supposed to and never gave her a chance to act as a moirail,” Kanaya whispered gently. “I must also confess that it was never as intense as this, is it supposed to feel like this?”

“Like what?” Karkat whispered back.

“Like I could die now and I would be the happiest troll in the universe,” Kanaya muttered with a watery glint in her glance nuggets. “Like wanting to tell you everything, even the most embarrassing thought I ever had, and wanting you to do the same.”

Karkat forced himself to swallow the knot in his throat. His glance nuggets were itching and he was sure he would begin crying ugly red tears at any moment. This was what he had always wanted but, at the same time, he didn’t deserve such devotion. Someone like him was not worthy of Kanaya’s pity and he couldn’t let her make such a grave mistake.

“It’s not right,” he muttered, trying to restrain his happy purr at her compliments. “I’m wrong, you deserve better than someone as fucked up as me, Kanaya.”

“Shoosh,” she shooshed him with a worried look. “Why do you say such horrible things, Karkat? I’m the one that doesn’t deserve you.”

“No!” he exclaimed, trying to push Kanaya away from him with shaky arms. “I’m wrong! I’m a mutant! I should have never been hatched!” 

“Oh, sugar, it’s alright,” insisted Kanaya. “I already know that you have mutant blood, I don’t care about it. I’m an aberration myself now that I am a rainbow drinker, remember?”

“It’s not only the colour of my blood!” he confessed, beginning to cry. “It’s worse than that, much worse.”

Having red blood had always been his biggest, easier to detect mutant trait, but it didn’t stop there. If that had been all, it might have been fine, especially now that everyone knew about his blood colour. However, there was something else, a part of himself that Karkat had denied even to himself. It wasn’t only that he was physically wrong, he also felt things in a wrong way. It was something he had told no one, but if anyone deserved to know, it was Kanaya. He would lose her when she knew the truth, though.

“Karkat?” Kanaya asked in her gentle voice, now sitting properly and with some distance between them. “Can you tell me what you feel is wrong with you, please?”

“I… I am wrong, inside,” he muttered, trying to restrain his tears. “The way I feel things is wrong.”

“What do you mean by _‘wrong’_ , sweetie?” the girl insisted.

“I feel pity for everyone!” he finally confessed in a rush.

“Oh,” he heard Kanaya whisper in a hurt tone. “So, you are not feeling the same as I do for you.”

Karkat raised his pan quickly at that, looking at the hurt in Kanaya’s face. Fuck, he had done it again!

“No!” he yelled. “I mean, yes! I pity you as I have never pitied anyone before! Even with Gamzee, it wasn’t like this!”

Ouch, good job, Karkat! Add your previous pale crush in the conversation with your new pale crush. Especially knowing how much Kanaya hated the crazy clown. 

“Oh, Karkat, I pity you too!” replied Kanaya with a happy thrill and holding his face softly between her prongs. “But, I don’t understand where the problem is.”

“I pity you more than anyone else Kanaya, I promise,” Karkat insisted, trying to transmit to her how much she meant to him. “But, sometimes, I feel a bit of pity for others too. You saw me with Sollux, I know I shouldn’t be taking care of him like that or even be worried about him, but I can’t help myself!”

“I understand, Karkat,” replied Kanaya softly. “Sollux is your oldest friend, and you have a special bond. He is not really himself right now, or at least not the best version of himself, and he needs our help. I pity him a bit too when he is like that,” she explained. “I’m not going to get angry at you for caring about your friends, Karkat.”

Oh. That was awfully nice of her. Karkat felt his blood pusher hurt at the thought of losing her, but he had to make her understand that it was not a thing that happened exclusively with Sollux. Karkat was, as the gold-blooded called him, a _‘pale slut’_.

“It’s not only with Sollux,” he insisted. “Sometimes I feel pity for Gamzee, even now that I know that he has gone crazy and that he is not the same troll I knew anymore.”

“You know how I feel about him, Karkat,” groaned Kanaya with a tired expression. “But you both had an almost moirallegiance in the past, and I understand if you still have some feelings for him. I don’t like it but I understand.”

“You are not getting the point here!” yelled Karkat, frustrated. “It’s not a special thing that happens only with Sollux or Gamzee! I have felt pity for Terezi, Eridan, Nepeta, Tavros and even the fucking Strider! I haven’t yet pitied Vriska or Lalonde, but I’m sure it will happen at some point!” he insisted, almost in tears again. “What I’m saying here is that I am apparently incapable of NOT feeling pity for any fucking living thing in paradox space! I might have even pitied Her Imperious Condescension at some point if given half a chance!”

There, he had said it. His biggest sin. Trolls were not supposed to feel pity for everyone and everything like that. It was supposed to be that special feeling that only one troll, in particular, could evocate in another. Something private and sacred between moirails and instead of that, Karkat’s mutant thinksponge made him give away pity like grubcandy during the 12th Eve Perigee. He had berated John for being such a soft, compassionate creature, but, in truth, Karkat had felt a bit identified with the human and hated him for it. He didn’t want to identify himself with a fucking human! He was proud to be a troll, even if he was bad at being one.

“Karkat, I need you to clarify something for me,” demanded Kanaya with a sterner voice than she had never used with him before. 

“Anything,” replied Karkat automatically.

“You said that you have never felt such strong pity as what you feel for me,” she said. “Were you lying to me when you said that?”

“What?! No! Of course I didn’t lie to you about it!” protested Karkat. “I would never do such a thing!”

“Okay, I believe you,” answered Kanaya, still with her severe expression. “Then, when you say that you feel pity for everyone, it’s not as strong as what you feel for me?”

“Never!” he insisted, horrified by the idea. “It’s nothing compared to this!”

Kanaya finally smiled at him, and Karkat felt an immense pleasure at making her smile like that. Fuck, he really had it bad.

“Do you think that may change?” insisted Kanaya. “Do you see yourself suddenly pitying someone else more than you pity me? Please, think about it a bit before answering.”

Karkat almost negated it immediately, but he did as told and took a moment to think about it. Would he ever pity Sollux, or Terezi, or even Strider in the same way that he was feeling for Kanaya? The truth was that he didn’t know, maybe? Okay, think about it in a different way, Karkat: would you ever want to be in a pile with either of them or tell them your most embarrassing thoughts? Would you ever sit down with Terezi and tell her about how scared you were as a grub? Fuck no! Never! Okay, what about Sollux, or Strider, or even Lalonde? He realised then that there was no way he could picture himself in an emotional pile with anyone else than Kanaya. Maybe Gamzee, before he went crazy on them, but definitely not anymore. 

“I never thought of it in this way before,” he confessed. “But I don’t think so. It feels different from what I feel for you, Kanaya.”

“How so?” she asked, curious.

“I worry about them, or sometimes it's something they say that makes me think that they are pitiful,” he tried to explain. “Sometimes I want to make sure that they are fine and safe, but I don’t want to talk with them about my own feelings. I don’t want to be their moirail, I just want them to be happy.”

The jade-blooded girl smiled hugely at him and got close enough to leave a kiss to the top of one of his nubby horns.

“That’s what I thought,” she said then with her soft voice. “Karkat, what you feel for them is not pity, it’s compassion. You are a lovely, compassionate troll and you care deeply about your friends, but that doesn’t mean that you pity them.”

“But trolls can’t feel compassion,” Karkat whispered. “I thought that it was a human’s thing.”

“I have been thinking about these things lately, and I believe that we are not that different than humans. But we have probably been conditioned by our society and culture more than we can even realise,” explained Kanaya. “We were raised to see compassion as a weakness, so we learned to repress that emotion for fear to be seen as weak and be murdered for it.”

That actually made sense. There was no use for compassion in a society based on the idea that only the strongest survive. They were raised to be strong and independent since before the moment they left the caverns. He suddenly remembered being a wiggler about to be culled by a drone, only to be saved by an older troll at the last moment. Someone saved him once without having any other motive to do it than out of their own compassion. Maybe that compassionate gesture from a stranger when he was almost too young to remember it had somehow marked him, Maybe that incident made him more compassionate than normal. Maybe he was not wrong, after all.

“When I first got out of the caverns, just after my first mold, someone saved me from a culling drone,” he confessed in a soft voice. “I don’t know why they did it, there was no reason to risk themselves like that, and they weren’t around the next time I woke up. I had almost forgotten it.”

“See?” smiled Kanaya. “Someone had compassion for you and saved your life when there was nothing to earn from it. That’s proof that trolls can be compassionate, too.”

Karkat nodded, still a bit unsure about it, but happy to contemplate the possibility of him not being such a freak as he thought he was. However, he still didn’t know what this meant for Kanaya and him. She seemed cool with him being _‘compassionate’_ of others, but did that mean that she would still want to be his moirail?

“Are you fine with it, then?” he asked timidly. “About me feeling a bit of pity for others, I mean.”

“I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t, actually,” Kanaya sighed. “I have a similar problem but in my case, it is with my ashen feelings. I know that I tend to meddle too much in other people’s business and that some trolls find it displeasing, but I can’t really help myself.

“Oh,” exclaimed Karkat softly, finally understanding a lot of things. “I actually don’t mind if you go a bit ashen on everyone. I just worry that you might get hurt while trying too hard to help everybody.”

“That’s really sweet of you, darling,” replied Kanaya, getting even closer to him until their noses touched. “I really pity you, Karkat. I don’t care that you feel compassion for others, too. That’s just who you are and I would never ask you to change like that.”

Karkat let go a pitiful shrill when he heard her repeat that she pitied him. He felt his tears begin falling again but he did nothing to stop them this time, all his attention focused on Kanaya. How had he been so lucky?

“I pity you, too,” he whispered before swallowing hard and asking the hard question. “Please, Kanaya, would you be my moirail?”

Jade coloured tears fell from Kanaya’s glance nuggets, but her smile was almost more brilliant than her luminescent skin. She patted his cheek affectionately, in a gesture too soft to be a pap.

“I would love to be your moirail, Karkat,” she answered.

Karkat smiled and, in an urge of bravery, he moved forwards and pecked the girl softly on her lips. It was his first pale kiss and he was a bit nervous, so it only lasted a few seconds before he moved back. Kanaya just smiled at him before enfolding him with her arms and pulling him towards her until his pan was resting just under her chin. In that position, he could feel her soft purr making his own body vibrate, lulling him to sleep.

“You should sleep, Karkat,” she said. “You are tired.”

“But Sollux…” he tried to protest.

“I will message Rose and ask her to watch over him for a bit longer,” Kanaya answered. “He will be just fine, I promise.”

“I need to apologize to him,” Karkat insisted. “I should have never been so mean to him. Not when he is like this.”

“I agree that an apology would be the best solution, but it can wait a few hours,” she repeated. “Sleep now, Karkat, don’t force me to pap you until you are unconscious.”

Karkat whimpered at the threat, uncertain of if he wanted her to go through with it or not. He had read about pale-induced coma states and it sounded wonderful. It was a bit too kinky for their first pile, though, so better keep it for another time. He closed his glance nuggets and before he realised it, he was sleeping.

* * *

Sollux's condition didn’t improve miraculously with Karkat’s nap, but the short troll had finally accepted that he needed help and things were easier after that. They established an informal schedule between Lalonde, Kanaya and him to make sure that Sollux was never left alone and that everyone took breaks when needed. He apologized to his hatefriend for yelling at him, and after a crying-and-cuddling episode, they were fine again. Kanaya took over cooking and they realised that Lalonde was especially good at calming Sollux down when he was in his self-deprecative state, and also in keeping her cool when he was being a bitch. 

Sollux’s blue mood, or depressive mood as Lalonde called it, lasted for another week at the same level of intensity, and another with him feeling a bit better. During that last week, Strider even offered to help in his not-really-offering-but-totally-doing-it way, and soon they were playing slow non-competitive games together in the lounge plank with a lot of the human’s nasty snacks between them. It gave everyone a much-needed respite, and listening to Sollux laughing softly at Strider’s exaggerated pouts every time his character died on the screen brightened all of their spirits.

Sooner than he had expected, Sollux was his regular annoying, arrogant, nerd self again. He bothered and mocked Karkat as usual, spent most of his time with his glance nuggets glued to a computer screen, and got into regular scream-fights with Vriska. It was as if his depressive mood hadn’t even happened, which Karkat was used to. He knew that Sollux remembered everything that happened during those episodes but he didn’t like to talk about it, so everyone did the same. However, Karkat noticed a few small changes in everyone’s behaviour after it. 

Suddenly, it was not uncommon to find Strider and Sollux yelling at each other and at the screen, both wearing their respective stupid sunglasses while eating their repulsive snacks and making a mess in the common area. Kanaya took the custom to make everyone’s breakfast every night, and now it was not so strange to see everyone eating together first thing in the morning, delicious cups of Lalonde’s coffee for everyone. Terezi and Vriska, however, kept avoiding everyone and disappearing in their _‘meteor exploration’_ trips for nights. He also noticed that Sollux and Kanaya were more friendly than they had been before his blue mood. It got to the point that Karkat was a bit jealous of their relationship, so he took Sollux aside one night to warn him that Kanaya was his moirail now, so please fuck the fuck off! The gold-blooded troll laughed at him, mocked him for his stupid jealousy, made clear than he and Kanaya were only friends, and finally congratulated him with one of his rare honest smiles. Karkat felt a bit ashamed of himself after that, and he ended up confessing his stupid actions to Kanaya. The girl took it with her usual grace and made it clear that there was nothing to worry, which made Karkat feel even more guilty and he swore to not be jealous of his friends ever again.

In general, Karkat was happy, happier than he had been in a long time. Having a functional moirail with which to have regular emotional piles really made wonders for a troll’s sponge health. He was happy enough that he finally noticed that Terezi was avoiding Strider and spending most of her time with Vriska. The human looked clearly sad about it, even with his _‘cool’_ fake shit, but he was keeping his distance as well. He had his suspicions before but now he was sure of it: whatever had been between Strider and Terezi was now completely dead. And that meant that maybe Karkat could have another opportunity with the blind girl, something that he had considered a lost cause for a long time.

He was thinking about it one day when his usual insomnia was keeping him from sleeping, and he decided that he would hate himself if he didn’t even try. It was an awful hour but maybe he was lucky and Terezi was awake. It was not as if they could distinguish between day and night from inside the meteor without using the 24 hours time-loop that Sollux had programmed in all of their computers. He decaptchalogued his palmhusk and checked his Trollian. Terezi was offline but Kanaya was connected.

carcinoGeneticist [CG] began trolling  grimAuxiliatrix [GA] at 13:30

CG: WHAT ARE YOU DOING AWAKE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY, KANAYA? 

GA: Hello Dear

GA: What Do You Mean With Day

GA: It’s The Middle Of The Night

CG: NO, IT ISN’T BECAUSE THEN EVERYONE WOULD BE AWAKE

CG: MY CLOCK SAYS THAT IT’S 13:31, SO IT’S SLEEPING TIME

CG: DO YOU SEE ANY OF THE OTHER FUCKERS WE HAVE THE DISGRACE TO CALL FRIENDS CONNECTED RIGHT NOW? EXACTLY, EVERYONE IS SLEEPING BECAUSE IT’S THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY

GA: My Apologies Karkat

GA: I Got Used To The Humans Circle Of Day And Night

GA: By Night I Meant That It Was The Time For Everyone To Sleep

GA: Also My Clock And I Believe Everyone Elses But Yours Says That Is 01:30 Now

CG: THE FUCK? WHY MINE IS DIFFERENT?

GA: I Am Guessing That Sollux Probably Changed Yours To Adapt Your Cycle Of Sleep Until It Was Simultaneous With Everyone Else

CG: THE FUCKER! WHY WOULD HE DO THAT?!

GA: Do You Not Remember The Meeting Where We Decided To Use The Same Schedule As The Humans

CG: WHY THE FUCK WOULD I WANT TO DO THAT? WE ARE TROLLS, KANAYA! WITH GREY SKIN, HORNS AND GENERAL AWESOMENESS, AND NOT WEAKLY, MULTICOLOURED SKINNED MAMMALS! AND TROLLS ARE FUCKING NOCTURNAL!

GA: That Is Probably Exactly The Reason Behind Your Different Clock Program

GA: Also You Realise That I Have Always Been Quite An Exceptional Troll With My Preference For Sunlight And Especially Now With My Status Of Undead

CG: YEAH, WHATEVER, IS NOT LIKE WE REALLY HAVE DAY AND NIGHT ANYMORE WITH THE WHOLE *BEING TRAPPED IN A FUCKING MOVING ROCK TRAVELLING THROUGH THE DARKNESS OF DEEP PARADOX SPACE* SITUATION

CG: ALL THE FUCKER DREAM BUBBLES DON’T HELP EITHER, WITH THE DUAL SHITPARTY THAT IS VISITING THEM WHEN ASLEEP AND GOING THROUGH THEM PHYSICALLY WHEN AWAKE

CG: NO WAY TO ESCAPE THE FUCKING DREAM BUBBLES

CG: ANYWAY

CG: YOU AGREE THAT IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE *SLEEPING TIME* NOW, RIGHT?

GA: That Seems To Be A Correct Assumption

CG: THEN MY QUESTION STILL STANDS: WHAT ARE YOU DOING AWAKE?

CG: ARE YOU ALRIGHT? IS EVERYTHING FINE? OH, FUCK, IT’S LALONDE, RIGHT?! WHAT HAD SHE DONE THIS TIME?!

GA: Calm Down Sweetheart I Am Alright

GA: It Has Been Difficult For Me To Rest For Longer Than Four Hours Since I Become What I Am Now

CG: OH, FUCK, THAT SUCKS. WELCOME TO THE INSOMNIA CLUB I GUESS.

GA: I Appreciate Your Warm Welcome To This Infamous Club About Which I Had Never Heard Anything Before Tonight

CG: WAIT, WHY IS THIS THE FIRST TIME I HEAR ABOUT THIS, KANAYA?! 

CG: I CLEARLY REMEMBER SITTING WITH YOU IN ONE OF MY PILES LAST WEEK AND ORDERING YOU TO TELL ME WHAT HAD CHANGED SINCE YOU HAD BECOME A RAINBOW DRINKER, AND YOU DIDN’T MENTION ANYTHING ABOUT NOT SLEEPING!

GA: I Merely Didn’t Consider My Recently Acquired Insomnia Worth Mentioning

GA: It Has Not Affected My Health In Any Remarkable Way

CG: THAT’S NOT THE POINT AND YOU KNOW IT! YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO TELL ME WHEN THINGS ARE EVEN SLIGHTLY WRONG!

GA: On The Contrary I Have Found That It Has Provided Me With A Lot Of Spare Time To Indulge In My Personal Projects

CG: PROJECTS? WHAT PROJECTS?

GA: I Have Been Designing New Outfits And I Am Thinking To Offer My Services To Our Friends

GA: It Would Surely Be Interesting To Cater To Such A Large Variety Of Body Types And Fashion Preferences

CG: FASHION IS STUPID AND USELESS

GA: I Would Appreciate If You Did Not Insult My Personal Passion In Such A Way Karkat

CG: OH, RIGHT, SORRY FOR INFORMING YOU OF THE STUPIDITY AND USELESSNESS OF FASHION. WHICH IS ESPECIALLY BULLSHIT WHEN WE ARE WHAT PREVAILS OF TWO DEAD UNIVERSES AND WE ARE FUCKING IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE AND HAVE NOBODY TO IMPRESS WITH OUR FASHION CHOICES!

GA: This Apology Does Not Feel Truthful Enough For Me To Consider Forgiving You So Easily Dear

CG: OH, COME ON KANAYA, YOU KNOW I’M JUST VENTING!

GA: I Take Such Mockery Of My Hobby More Seriously Than That 

GA: I Am Afraid That You Will Have To Do Something For Me To Be Able To Forgive You

CG: SERIOUSLY?! OKAY, SHOOT, WHAT DO I NEED TO DO FOR YOU TO FORGIVE MY DUMB MOCKERY OF YOUR SACRED FASHION? CLEAN YOUR RESPITEBLOCK FOR YOU? BRING YOU BREAKFAST TO YOUR BLOCK FOR A WEEK?

GA: Let Me Take Your Measurements And Make Some New Clothes For You

CG: SHIT! THAT WAS YOUR WHOLE IDEA FROM THE BEGINNING, RIGHT? YOU TRICKED ME HERE!

CG: I DON’T NEED NEW CLOTHES KANAYA, I HAVE TOLD YOU A MILLION TIMES THAT MY CLOTHES ARE JUST FINE!

GA: I Digress With Your Clothes Being Anything But Old And Fashionless

CG: MY CLOTHES DON’T HAVE TO BE FASHIONABLE! THEY ARE ONLY CLOTHES AND FASHION IS STUPID!

GA: Here You Are Mocking My Passion Without Any Consideration Again

GA: I Am Feeling Really Hurt From Your Inconsiderate Words Karkat

CG: FUCKING FUCK SHIT IN A FUCKING STICK!!

CG: OKAY! I WILL DO IT! BUT YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO GUILT-TRIP ME INTO IT AGAIN! IT WON’T WORK NEXT TIME, I SWEAR!

GA: Thank You Love I Promise To Make Something Comfortable And Lovely For You

GA: <>

CG: YEAH, WHATEVER. YOU HAVE BEEN SPENDING TOO MUCH TIME WITH LALONDE, YOU ARE BECOMING AS MANIPULATIVE AS HER

CG: <>

CG: ALSO, DON’T THINK I DIDN’T NOTICE WHAT YOU WERE REALLY TRYING TO DO THERE WITH THIS LONG-AS-ASS DEBATE ABOUT FASHION OF ALL THINGS!

GA: I Have No Idea Of What You Might Be Possibly Referring To

CG: PLEASE KANAYA, YOU KNOW THAT I’M NOT THAT STUPID

CG: YOU WERE TRYING TO DISTRACT ME FROM THE FACT THAT YOU HID IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR WELLBEING IN OUR LAST PILE TALK

GA:

GA: Was It Working?

CG: NOT AT ALL, AND YOUR ELABORATE PLOT IS MAKING ME THINK THAT THERE ARE STILL THINGS THAT YOU ARE NOT TELLING ME. PROBABLY SOME ASPECT OF BEING A RAINBOW DRINKER THAT IS ESPECIALLY BOTHERING YOU

GA: 

GA: I Underestimated Your Intelligence Karkat I Apologize

CG: FORGET IT, IT’S FINE. I KNOW I LOOK STUPID MOST OF THE TIMES

CG: I WILL LET GO OF THE TOPIC FOR NOW BUT DON’T BELIEVE FOR A SECOND THAT I’LL FORGET IT. WE WILL TALK ABOUT EVERYTHING YOU HAVE BEEN HIDING FROM ME EVENTUALLY, BUT RIGHT NOW THERE IS SOMETHING I WANTED TO DISCUSS WITH YOU

CG: I NEED SOME ADVICE

GA: Oh Of Course Karkat You Should Have Told Me That First Thing In Our Conversation

GA: Is Everything Alright

GA: Should I Come Over To Your Respiteblock

CG: I’M FINE, I WILL PREFER TO KEEP TALKING IN HERE IF YOU DON’T MIND

GA: Of Course

GA: What Is Troubling You

CG: THE THING IS THAT I HAVE BEEN THINKING LATELY, AND YES ME THINKING WHAT A JOKE, HA HA, I KNOW HOW FUNNY THAT CONCEPT IS

GA: I Would Never Mock You Like This I Believe You Are Confusing Me With Someone Else

GA: Maybe Someone Towards Whom You Have Pitch Inclinations

CG: SHUT UP, WE ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT SOLLUX HERE

GA: I Never Said His Name But You Automatically Thought Of Him When I Mentioned Having Feelings Of The Black Concupiscent Type

GA: I Wonder What That Quick Mental Association Means

CG: CAN WE NOT TALK ABOUT MY FUCKED UP FEELINGS FOR OUR RESIDENT NERD FOR NOW, PLEASE? I WANTED TO FOCUS ON MY RED QUADRANT TODAY

GA: I Didn’t Know You Had Developed Flush Feelings For Anyone Recently

CG: WELL, IT’S NOT EXACTLY A RECENT THING. I TOLD YOU ABOUT MY FUCKED UP MESSED RED/BLACK THING WITH TEREZI, RIGHT?

GA: Oh Sweety 

GA: I Thought We Decided That It Was Better To Leave Things As They Are Now With Her

CG: I KNOW, I KNOW, BUT THAT WAS BECAUSE STRIDER AND SHE WERE PLAYING MATESPRIT BEAKBEAST COURTSHIP. YOU KNOW, WITH THEM SPENDING HOURS TOGETHER IN THEIR FUCKED TOWNCAN AND THEIR LOOKING-INTO-THE-OTHER-NUGGETS-FOR-FULL-MINUTES BULLSHIT THING

GA: I Believe That The Correct Name Of Their Diminute City Representation Is Can Town

CG: WHATEVER, THE FUCKING STUPID GAME WITH THE CARAPACIAN

CG: THE FACT IS THAT IT’S CLEAR THAT THEY HAD SOME KIND OF FALL OUT RECENTLY, BECAUSE TEREZI IS AVOIDING STRIDER AND THE STUPID HUMAN IS NOW SPENDING ALL HIS FREE TIME ALONE WITH THE CARAPACIAN OR PLAYING GRUBGAMES WITH SOLLUX

CG: SO, MAYBE NOW IS MY OPPORTUNITY

GA: Your Opportunity To Accomplish What Exactly

CG: TO GET TEREZI BACK! IF SHE IS FREE FROM STRIDER AGAIN, THAT MEANS THAT I HAVE A WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY WHERE I CAN TRY TO GET HER BACK! I NEVER GOT AROUND TO PROPERLY ASK HER OUT BEFORE, THIS COULD BE MY LAST OPPORTUNITY!

CG: I WAS HOPING TO TROLL HER BEFORE BUT HER TROLLIAN IS OFF AND YOURS WAS ONLINE, WHICH IS EVEN BETTER BECAUSE THIS WAY I CAN HAVE YOUR OPINION BEFORE TALKING TO HER

CG: SO, WHAT DO YOU THINK? SHOULD I TRY IT AGAIN OR WOULD I BE JUST MAKING A FOOL OF MYSELF AND BETTER DON’T EVEN TRY?

GA: It Is A Difficult Question

GA: For What You Told Me You Didn’t Break Your Previous Almost-Relationship In A Proper Way And Your Friendship Is Just Beginning To Recover From That Blow

GA: I Want To Give You The Best Advice Possible But Unfortunately I Do not Have Rose’s Gift And I Can Not Predict How Things Will Evolve

CG: WHAT DO YOU MEAN WITH THAT? DO YOU THINK THAT IT WOULD BE A BAD IDEA?

GA: Being Truthfully I Am Concerned That You Would Want To Ask Her Out For The Wrong Reasons

CG: WHAT WRONG REASONS?! I FUCKED UP DURING THE GAME SO I COULDN’T ASK HER THEN, AND AFTER THAT SHE BEGAN BEING SO OBSESSED WITH FUCKING STRIDER THAT SHE COMPLETELY IGNORED ME!

CG: NOW THAT THEY SEEM TO HAVE BROKEN UP IT’S MY MOMENT TO ATTACK!

GA: It Is As I Feared Then

CG: WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN WITH THAT?! STOP BEING SO CRYPTIC AND FUCKING SAY WHAT YOU ARE THINKING, KANAYA!

GA: Okay I Will Do As You Ask

GA: Remember That I Pity You And That The Harshness Of My Next Words In No Way Is A Detrimental Of My Feelings For You But A Honest Effort To Help You

CG: YOU ARE SCARING ME HERE

GA: Karkat I Believe That You Are Misplacing Your Feelings And That You Are Trying To Force Terezi Into Your Red Quadrant For The Wrong Reasons

CG: THERE YOU GO WITH CRYPTIC SHIT AGAIN! WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN BY *The Wrong Reasons*?!

GA: Are You Sure That You Have Flushed Feelings For Terezi And Not Simply Trying To Prove Something To Dave

CG: NO WAY! WHAT ARE YOU FUCKING TALKING ABOUT?! OF COURSE I AM FLUSHED FOR TEREZI! I HAVE BEEN FOR SWEEPS!

GA: And Yet When You Told Me About Your Failed Courtship You Did Not Appear To Be Heartbroken

CG: I AM! I AM SO PUSHERBROKEN THAT I CRY MYSELF TO SLEEP EVERY NIGHT THINKING ABOUT MY CROSSED LOVERS THING WITH TEREZI!

GA: I Find That Unrealistic Based On The Fact That Is The First Time You Mention It 

CG: IT’S NOT! DON’T PATRONISE ME! WE HAVE ONLY BEEN MOIRAILS FOR A COUPLE OF WEEKS! YOU DON’T KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT ME YET, KANAYA! YOU DON’T KNOW ANYTHING!

GA: That Was Not What I Was Implying

CG: OF COURSE YOU WERE! YOU WERE JUST DECIDING THAT MY FEELINGS FOR TEREZI ARE FAKE! THAT I’M ONLY FAKING IT IN AN ATTEMPT TO PISS OFF STRIDER, AS IF I DIDN’T CARE ABOUT TEREZI AT ALL!

GA: Karkat Wait

CG: NO! FUCK IT AND FUCK YOU! I’M OUT OF HERE!

With that, Karkat threw away his palmhusk, not caring of where it fell or if it ended broken in the process. He pulled his thermal blanket from the back of his lounge plank and used it to fully cover himself under it. Red ugly tears were falling on his raised knees and his sobs shook his full body. Karkat didn’t know what hurt more: the broken fantasy he had created where he had a nice, loving matesprit, or the fact that deep inside him he was afraid of Kanaya being right about him unconsciously using Terezi only to win something over Strider.

Karkat knew himself well enough to know that he really liked Terezi, but his confusion about if he wanted her as a matesprit or as a kismesis had not disappeared. There was also his weird thing with Sollux. If he and Terezi began dating, what would happen with Sollux, then? Would their weird rivalry with hints of pity still be possible, or would it have to stop? Karkat wasn’t sure if he would be able to avoid Sollux if Terezi asked him to, the other guy was just so annoying! The best case scenario would be if both of them were alright with Karkat vacillating between them, was that asking too much? It would be perfect, though. Oh, fuck, maybe it would be better if he didn’t even try, as Kanaya suggested. She was his moirail after all, who would know better than her? 

“Oh, fuck no! Kanaya!” Karkat yelled when he realised how he had finished their Trollian conversation. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

He rushed out of the lounge plank, fighting with the blanket that had him tied in a messy knot, and looked around trying to remember in which direction he had thrown his palmhusk. He lost his balance in one of his turns and fell to the floor, hitting his shoulder with the ground. Karkat swore loudly while trying to release his trapped strut stick from the murderous blanket, and finally saw his lost device under his desk table. 

He crawled until he was under the desk and picked up his palmhusk. Luckily, it worked perfectly. It was still open on his last conversation with Kanaya, where she apparently had been trying to call his attention for the last few minutes. He rushed to apologize without even reading her messages.

GA: Karkat Sweety Please Listen To Me

GA: It Was Not My Intention To Offend You Or Judge Your Feelings I Was Only Trying To Be Truthful About This Situation

GA: If You Really Wish To Pursue Your Flush Affections With Terezi I Will Support You And Wish For Your Happiness

GA: No Matter If Things Go Well Or Horribly Bad I Will Be There For You

GA: I Will Always Be There For You Or At Least For As Long As You Want Me To

GA:

GA: Karkat?

GA: Your Seem To Be Online But You Have Gone Awfully Quiet

GA: Please Talk To Me Love

GA: Are You Really Receiving These Messages Or Not 

GA: I Am Getting Worried Dear If You Do Not Answer Soon I Will Come Looking For You

GA: Please Talk To Me Karkat

GA: Pity You

GA: <>

GA:

GA: Okay It Seems That Something Is Really Wrong I Am Coming For You Now

CG: SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY

GA: There You Are

CG: IMSORRYKANAYAPLEASEDONTLEAVEMYIPITYYOUIPITYYOUIPITYYOUSOMUCH

GA: Oh Darling

GA: It Is Okay Love I Am Not Going Anywhere

GA: Take A Few Slow Breaths And Try Again For Me Okay

GA: <>

CG: <><><><><><><>

GA: Karkat Breathe Deeply For Me

GA: Everything Is Going To Be Alright

CG: *inhale* *exhale*

GA: That Is It Do You Feel Calmer Now

CG: YEAH

GA: I Am Glad

GA: Do You Want Me To Come To Your Respiteblock

CG: NO, PLEASE DON’T. I’M A MESS RIGHT NOW AND I DON’T WANT YOU TO SEE ME LIKE THIS

GA: I Do Not Mind The State Of Messines Of Which You Are Now If You Need Me There I Will Come Gladly

CG: PLEASE, I ALREADY MESSED UP A LOT FOR TONIGHT. I DON’T WANT TO MAKE IT WORSE

GA: Okay As You Wish But If You Change Your Mind At Any Moment Let Me Know And I Will Come Immediately

CG:

GA: Karkat Are You Okay

CG: PITY YOU SO MUCH KANAYA

GA: <>

CG: <>

CG: I’M SORRY FOR EVERYTHING I SAID TO YOU BEFORE

GA: You Do Not Need To Apologize I Should Have Chosen My Words Better

GA: I Did Not Mean To Upset You

CG: I KNOW, THAT WASN'T IT. I THINK THAT THE PROBLEM WAS THAT WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT ME NOT REALLY CARING ABOUT TEREZI ANYMORE SCARED ME OF MAYBE BEING THE TRUTH

CG: IT’S JUST

CG: I HAVE ALWAYS WISHED OF ONE DAY FILLING MY QUADRANTS WITH THE PERFECT QUADRANTMATES, BUT NOW THERE ARE ONLY SIX TROLLS STILL ALIVE IN PARADOX SPACE AND TWO OF THEM ARE CRAZY PSYCHOPATHS

CG: DON’T GET ME WRONG, YOU ARE MORE THAN PERFECT AND I DON’T DESERVE YOU, BUT I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ESPECIALLY WORRIED ABOUT FILLING THE CONCUSPICIENT PAILS BEFORE THE FUCKING DRONES CAME AND KNOCKED MY DOOR DOWN

GA: There Was Indeed Social Pressure To Fulfil Our Reproduction Duties

CG: YEAH AND I GUESS THAT I WAS MORE WORRIED ABOUT IT THAN USUAL BECAUSE OF MY WHOLE MUTANT BLOOD THING

GA: That Is Understable 

CG: SO, HERE WE ARE NOW. THE LAST SIX MEMBERS OF OUR SPECIES, ON A JOURNEY TO WHAT COULD BE OUR OWN TERRIBLE DEATH, AND MY TWO CONCUPISCENT QUADRANTS ARE STILL EMPTY

GA: I Think I Am Understanding Your Point But I Feel That Is My Obligation To Remind You That There Is No Social Or Cultural Pressure To Fill Any Reproduction Pail Anymore

GA: Not Without A Matriorb And Even If We Had One The Condesce Is Dead

CG: I KNOW THAT I DON’T *HAVE* TO, BUT I WANT TO FILL MY QUADRANTS PROPERLY. I ALWAYS DREAMED OF IT

GA: I Can Understand That Feeling

GA: I Am Guessing That Gamzee And Vriska Are The Two Crazy Psychopaths You Had Discarded Before And We Are Already In A Conciliatory Quadrant So That Leaves Only Two Free Trolls

CG: SOLLUX AND TEREZI

GA: You Are Forgetting Aradia But I Do Not Believe We Will See Her Again For A Long Time So It Is Reasonable To Leave Her Out

CG: ALSO THE FACT THAT SHE IS CREEPY AS FUCK AND I HALF-HATE HER PLATONICALLY FOR WHAT SHE MADE SOLLUX GO THROUGH WHEN SHE WAS A GHOST

GA: All Reasonable Arguments

GA: If I Understand It Correctly What You Meant Was That You Had Reduced The List To Two Suitable Concupiscent Trolls Which Tied Nicely With Your Two Empty Quadrants

CG: YES! YOU CAN ALSO SEE IT, THEN?! I DIDN’T THINK ABOUT IT IN THIS WAY IN THE BEGINNING, BUT NOW THAT TEREZI IS SINGLE AGAIN IT SEEMS LIKE A SIGN, DON’T YOU THINK?

GA: A Sign From Whom

CG: THE HORRORTERROR GODS, FATE, OR EVEN GAMZEE’S STUPID CLOWN GODS! WHO CARES?! 

GA: So You Are Suggesting To Have Terezi As Your Matesprit And Sollux As Your Kismesis

CG: OR THE OTHER WAY AROUND. I AM CONFIDENT THAT I COULD VACILLATE WITH BOTH OF THEM EASILY IF IT WAS NEEDED, WHICH WOULD BE PERFECT! TWO QUADRANTMATES WITH WHOM VACILLATE IF NEEDED!

GA: Sweetheart I Am Afraid That Relationships Do Not Work Like This

GA: It Might Look Nice On Paper But You Are Not Considering Terezi And Sollux’s Feelings In This Plan Of Yours

CG: BUT IT’S THE PERFECT SOLUTION!

GA: What If They Do Not Have The Same Feelings Towards You Or They Do Not Agree With Your Solution To A Possible Vacillation Problem

CG: WHY WOULD THEY HAVE ANY PROBLEM WITH MY PLAN?! MY PLAN IS FLAWLESS!

GA: I Am Just Trying To Say That Logic Is Hardly Applicable To A Situation With Emotions Involved

CG: THEN WHAT SHOULD I DO? GAVE UP?

GA: If You Truly Wish To Pursue A Relationship With Terezi I Agree That You Should Try Your Best And Ask Her Out If You Feel Like That

GA: But I Would Recommend You To Keep An Open Mind And Do Not Try To Force A Situation Only To Fit With Your Shipping Grid

CG: OKAY, I CAN TOTALLY DO THAT. I WANT TO TRY THOUGH, KANAYA. I KNOW THAT MY CHANGES ARE LOWER THAN TAVROS’ EGO EVER WAS, BUT I HAVE TO AT LEAST TRY. THE *WHAT IF* WOULD KILL ME OTHERWISE

GA: I Understand

GA: Do You Want Me To Be With You When You Ask Her

CG: THANKS KANAYA BUT IT FEEL LIKE THIS IS SOMETHING I HAVE TO DO ON MY OWN

GA: Okay I Can Respect That

GA: Just Please Let Me Know Before You Talk To Her So I Can Clear My Schedule And Be Ready For You If You Need Me Afterwards

CG: I WILL TRY TO SLEEP A BIT NOW AND TALK WITH HER TOMORROW MORNING. IN PERSON IF I CAN FIND HER ALONE OR THROUGH TROLLIAN IF I CAN’T

GA: Okay That Sounds Logical

CG: THANKS, I GUESS

CG: AND THANKS FOR BEING HERE FOR ME KANAYA, EVEN WHEN I AM SUCH AN HORRIBLE EXCUSE OF A TROLL

GA: Shoosh Now You Are Amazing

GA: Our Fearless Leader

CG: OH, SHUT UP! YOU KNOW I’M NOT A LEADER ANYMORE

GA: These Kind Of Statements Are The Best Proof Of Your Leadership Skills

CG: WHATEVER YOU SAY, ‘NAYA

CG: I’M GOING TO SLEEP NOW, THANKS AGAIN

GA: Have A Dreamless Day

CG: <>

GA: <>

carcinoGeneticist [CG] ceased trolling  grimAuxiliatrix [GA] at 14:57

Karkat logged off of Trollian and stripped out of his clothes until he was only in his boxers before entering his recuperacoon. He was really glad that they managed to alchemise proper coons, but unfortunately the alchemiter had been so far unable to create proper sopor. Instead of sopor, it created a slime with similar texture and colour but without the soporific attributes of the original version. It was better than nothing, but it certainly did not help with his insomnia. At least, now that Feferi’s lusus was dead, they didn’t have to worry about deadly daymares anymore. Only the occasional visit into a dream bubble and having normal, weird, human-style dreams. Karkat closed his glance nuggets and began counting imaginary woolbeasts to make himself fall asleep.

Tomorrow he will ask Terezi to be his matesprit and she will accept. He was sure of it, his plan was flawless, after all.


	10. Bleeding Hearts

“Good, that’s enough,” Rose instructed. “Now, turn the pan around to expand the batter.”

Kanaya tried to do as told, but making pancakes was not as easy as she had been promised. She moved her wrist sideways until the mixture fell to one side of the skillet, and then she repeated the movement in the opposite direction. Some of the brown concoction poured out of the skillet, falling over the crisprange, where it burned quickly. Perfect, now she was broadcasting her poor cooking technique in front of Rose. How shameful. The human, however, did not seem bothered by her inadequacies. Instead, she moved a step closer to Kanaya with a smile. It was then when Kanaya felt Rose’s prong resting over hers, gently.

“Try to use circular movements instead of undulant ones,” Rose recommended, still holding Kanaya’s wrist. “Shall I show you?”

Kanaya felt her heart beating faster than the wings of a buzzing bee. If she were still alive, her face would probably be completely green by now. Unfortunately, luminescence was not exactly a more subtle alternative. However, Rose seemed ignorant of Kanaya’s embarrassment. The human was almost plastered to her side by now, guiding Kanaya’s prong in circular movements. She was also whispering further instructions with a calm, detached voice. Kanaya turned her thinkpan slightly to her left to observe the human’s expression. The fragrance of sunshine, paper, and hot metallic blood flooded her thinksponge.

For a moment, Kanaya’s senses were overwhelmed with the smell of Rose’s blood. She could almost taste the sweetness of the bright red blood under Rose’s skin. She perceived how it moved in a lazy, constant flow through her body, providing the human with a reddish tone in places where the skin was even thinner than usual. Kanaya could see Rose’s blood flow pulsing particularly strongly at the base of her neck. Such thin, fragile skin, keeping all that delicious blood contained and barely out of Kanaya’s reach. She wondered how hard it would be to break such a weak barrier with her fangs. Probably much easier than a troll’s skin.

There was a clattering noise in the block and Kanaya came back to herself. It was like awakening from a too realistic dream. She panicked when she realised the road her thoughts had taken without her intention. Kanaya took a step back from the meal preparation countertop, away from Rose and the sweet smell of her blood. She dropped the skillet in her panic and the pancake mixture splashed everywhere, even on the bottom of her dress. Not like Kanaya could spare any thought to worry about that at the moment. Even from a few steps away, she was still hyper-aware of the flow of red blood under the human’s skin. It was a terrifying temptation. 

“Kanaya?” Rose asked, with hints of worry in her tone. “Are you alright?”

Kanaya wanted to say yes, but she was not sure if that answer would have been sincere. The truth was that she did not know. Was she alright? Probably not. She was undead, after all, and she had read enough books about rainbow drinkers to be able to speculate the cause of her current symptoms. She was blood-thirsty. It was not the first time something like that had happened. The last time she had felt so absorbed with the smell of blood had ended with necks punctured and a rainbow of flavours in Kanaya’s mouth. Kanaya refused to let that happen again. It would be unrefined of her. Unfortunately, that meant that there was nothing that Rose could do to help. Or, at least, nothing that Kanaya was comfortable with asking.

“I apologize, Rose,” she said. “It was an instinctual reaction, I did not mean to scare you.”

It was clear by the look in Rose’s face that she did not believe her. Or, at least, the human suspected that there was something that Kanaya was omitting. As clever as ever. Kanaya was still trying to come up with a better argument when someone screaming near them drew her attention. She turned just in time to see the large glass container in the middle of the block crashing to the floor, releasing its contents everywhere and making the walls tremble.

Nobody moved for a moment, all lookstubs focused on the massive monster spread out on the floor. When it seemed clear that the creature was as dead as it had been when still floating inside its previous cylindrical hive, Kanaya turned towards the three miscreants responsible for the mess. Sollux was floating in midair with a guilty expression in his face and a prong extended towards the centre of the clutter. Next to the monster, Vriska was standing among broken glass. She had fortunately avoided being hit by any shard, but her luck was not enough to escape being drenched in the dark liquid. Terezi was a bit further away from the monster than Vriska, but she was also surrounded by glass and other broken fragments, her sword drawn on her prong. Judging by the slight smell of thoughtfulness, chalk and cold spicy blood in the air, it was clear that Terezi had not emerged completely unscathed from this incident.

“Which part of _‘hold it up’_ you didn’t understand, Captor?!” Vriska scolded, changing to her clean God Tier clothes with a snap of her fingers. “Do I have to do everything myself?!”

“Shut up, spidertroll!” she heard Sollux replying angrily from where he was floating. “It was still welded to the floor, I told you to detach the base first!”

Kanaya observed the mess of broken glass, dark liquid spilt everywhere, and the huge monster in the centre of it all. At least this incident had been shocking enough to drag her out of her blood-thirsty weak moment. She wondered if the weird creature had blood in its veins. After all, she had seen similar monsters bleed before exploding into grist during the game. Would it be edible? If that was the case, it could help with her current problem. Kanaya still had a couple of flasks with alchemized old troll blood in her sylladex, but it did not seem to quench her thirst anymore. Maybe what she needed was a fresh source. She began walking towards the monster, ignoring the three trolls arguing near it.

“We tried! It’s not that easy when you don’t have psionics!” Terezi protested. “I still don’t see why you couldn’t tear it off by yourself. Aren’t you always bragging of being the strongest psionic of our generation, Mr Appleberry Blast?”

“I don’t brag and I AM the strongest psionic to ever exist!” was Sollux's reply, while he began floating large pieces of glass.“Sure, I could have torn it out by myself if I wanted to, but I would have probably taken the floor with it and we would have ended with a huge hole in the middle of the block. Would that have been better for you?”

Kanaya ignored Terezi’s sarcastic reply and Vriska’s sharp accusations and jumped right next to the grotesque creature. It had not moved since it had been liberated from its container; it remained spread out on the floor with limbs in unnatural positions. Kanaya listened carefully but she could not hear a heartbeat. It was clear that this creature was dead. Or maybe it had never been alive in the first place. In any case, it might still have blood inside its body, so Kanaya captchalogued it into her sylladex. With a bit of luck, she would find the correspondent Auxiliatrix Key soon and be able to test her theory.

“Oi! What do you think you are doing, Kanaya?!” she heard Vriska yelling to her. “Terezi and I are the ones collecting grist here!”

“I apologize, Vriska, but it is already in a locked card,” Kanaya excused herself, showing Vriska the captchalogue card in her prong. “You know how my sylladex works, I will not be able to take out the body until the right moment. Furthermore, it was already dead and I do not believe it would have produced any grist.”

“Fuck, are you really still using the Chastity one?!” her old friend complained. “That’s the most useless Fetch Modus! What’s the point of a sylladex that doesn’t let you take your things out when you need them?”

“On the contrary,” Kanaya argued. “It allows me to use objects only when I need them, and I find that notion relaxing. I have never had any problems decaptchaloguing items when I truly needed them, or had to question myself if it was the appropriate moment to use them.”

Except for when she found the Auxiliatrix Key to unlock the Matriorb. Had she never found it in a chest in the first place, she would not have had the egg with her when Eridan betrayed them and decided to destroy it. Her sylladex was supposed to unlock items only when she was predestined to use them, but finding the Auxiliatrix Key had indirectly caused the destruction of the Matriorb. Kanaya was not sure of what concept was more terrifying: the possibility of her sylladex’s prediction capabilities being wrong or accurate. She did not like to think about the possibility that the destruction of the Matriorb had been a predestined, inescapable event. If Kanaya was meant to fail from the beginning, what had been the point of her sweeps-long training for her role in hatching a new Mother Grub and ensuring the trolls’ future procreation?

“Hey guys, is everyone alright? There was that huge boom and…” Dave said, just after transportalizing himself into the block. “Wtf?! What have you done, now, Serket?!”

“Oh, shut up Strider!” Vriska protested. “For your information, WE have done nothing! It was all Captor’s fault!”

“Fuck you sidewise, bitch!” Captor screamed back, the glass shards in the air suddenly turning, their sharp edges pointing threateningly at the blue-blooded troll. “You and Terezi were the ones pestering me non-stop about this! Not my fault if you couldn’t do anything by yourself!”

Kanaya had hoped that Vriska and Sollux’s relationship would improve with time and forced cohabitation, but, instead, it had gotten worse. For all appearances, they really hated each other. Kanaya was pretty sure that it was also in a completely platonic way. Sollux had more than enough motives to hate Vriska after everything she did to him in the past, but Kanaya did not understand why Vriska was so belligerent with him. It had not always been like that. Both of them used to ignore each other in the beginning, before Aradia’s death. It had been precisely after that incident that their mutual hostility began. And that hostility had done nothing but grow with time. Kanaya decided to intervene in the discussion before the empty threats became murderous attempts. 

“May I ask why you wanted to remove the previous item in the first place?” she asked, curious. “Not that I am against it, either. It was quite an unpleasant sight, after all, but I assumed that everyone was used to it after so long.”

“I’m glad you asked, Maryam!” Vriska answered with her best showtroll voice. “The removal of this ugly specimen has been debated extensively among the leaders of this expedition for quite some time now.”

“I thought we didn’t have leaders in the meteor,” Kanaya heard Dave whispering to Rose behind her.

“That’s what I believed, too,” Rose replied in the same low voice. “But let’s see where this goes before we burst Vriska’s fantasy bubble.”

“Of course, only taking away this trash is not enough!” Vriska continued. “We needed to find a suitable replacement, something of similar dimensions but more suited to be in this block. There were several possible options, including not putting anything at all! It was a tough call but, after long deliberation, we came up with the perfect idea!”

Kanaya realised that Vriska would keep talking and talking even if nobody paid attention to her. Almost everyone was already ignoring her soliloquy. Sollux was busy captchaloguing all large glass fragments into his sylladex, a large number of full card safes already floating around him. Dave and Rose were still whispering behind Kanaya, commenting on Vriska's more humorous discrepancies, and cleaning the mess Kanaya caused previously when she dropped the skillet to the floor. The only one that seemed to still be half-listening to Vriska's monologue was Terezi, who was throwing some towels to the floor to soak up the dark liquid and adding the occasional comment when appropriate. Kanaya wondered if there was a way to excuse herself without being excessively discourteous.

Almost as if he had heard Kanaya’s plea, Karkat transported into the block at that moment. He jumped out of the transportaliser quickly but, instead of coming closer, he stood there, waiting. The reason for his strange behaviour was clarified when the little carapacian that everyone called Mayor appeared on the platform. It was not the first time the small creature visited the common sections of the meteor, but it was a sporadic occurrence. Kanaya did not know that Karkat and the Mayor were on good terms. After all, Karkat had a strong personality and the carapacian had always seemed a bit skittish. Not that her moirail would ever hurt them. Her moirail. It was so nice to have Karkat as her moirail, she still found herself being amazed by that fact sometimes.

“Hey, assholes!” Karkat yelled as a greeting. “Check out what I found in the Cross Hallway! I think the carapacian was lost, which is fucking stupid. I mean, you need a low-functioning sponge to get lost in a hall with only two functional transportalisers!”

“Oi! Don’t insult the Mayor, Vantas!” Dave complained while flying directly towards them. “He is not used to the meteor yet!” he said before turning towards his friend with a smile. “Hey Mayor, it's nice to see you out of Can Town.”

“That’s exactly my point, Strider!” Karkat insisted, beginning to walk towards Kanaya and stopping a moment to contemplate the mess in the centre of the block with an astonished facial expression. “What the fuck?! You know what?! I don’t even want to know!” and, with that, he proceeded to avoid the dark pool and carry on with his previous topic as if nothing had distracted him. “What was I talking about? Ah, yes! The stupidity of getting lost inside the meteor after so long. We have all been trapped in this hellish rock for perigees, Strider! The Mayor could have learned the way ages ago if it had fucking tried!”

The carapacian hid a bit behind Dave’s legs, probably afraid of Karkat’s outburst. The human did not seem to mind, though, because he smiled and crouched down to say something to them. The Mayor nodded with their thinkpan and walked back with Dave towards the meal preparation countertop, grabbing his cape tightly in one prong. Curious. Kanaya had never found anything remarkable in the carapacian race. They were by definition a blank slate, just another mechanism of Sgrub. Kanaya never thought she would find herself coexisting with one of them.

“Hey,” Karkat smiled at her, shyly. “Did you sleep at all after our conversation?”

“Hello, love,” Kanaya smiled back, barely resisting the impulse to comb Karkat’s crazy hair and kiss his thinkpan front. “I managed a couple of hours of sleep. How about you?”

There were huge bags under Karkat’s lookstubs. Kanaya knew that her moirail sometimes suffered from insomnia and it was clearly affecting his health. She was worried about him but she did not know what to do about that particular problem. Karkat seemed to be able to sleep better when resting in a pile with her, but he refused to move permanently into Kanaya’s section. Kanaya’s attempts to hide the fact that her body no longer needed to sleep as much as a normal troll had only complicated the situation. She should have told him the truth from the beginning and offered to guard his sleep.

“I barely slept,” Karkat confessed while he sat on the table and rested his pan on his folded arms. “I kept thinking about our conversation, and what I said I would do today.”

“Oh,” Kanaya exclaimed in a low voice. She looked around, checking that they had some privacy, and sat on a chair in front of Karkat. “Are you still determined to go forward with this?”

“No. Yes. I don’t know,” Karkat replied in a confused whisper. “I need to try. I want to know her answer, but I’m so fucking scared! What will I do if she rejects me? It would be so humiliating.”

Kanaya glimpsed at Terezi quickly, checking that she was too far away to hear them, and saw her still talking with Vriska, in the centre of the large block. On their left, the two humans were busy cooking and talking, with the carapacian still attached to Dave. Sollux was piling his sylladex card safes in a corner of the block, apparently done with his glass collection duties. It was certainly not the best place to have a feelings jam, but they were away from prying auricular sponge clots, at least for the moment. Kanaya focused back on her moirail, moving forwards on her chair and placing her prong over one of his arms. Karkat raised his thinkpan a bit to look at her.

“Of course it is scary, but you will not know her answer until you ask,” Kanaya said with what she hoped was an encouraging smile. “It could go good or bad. Regardless of her answer, you will never know unless you ask and you will always wonder. If you are sure of your feelings, you ought to try.”

“I am sure of what I feel, I already told you yesterday!” Karkat complained in a bit too high a voice. Kanaya saw Rose looking in their direction for a moment, but she was sure the human had not heard what they were saying. Karkat seemed to realise his mistake because he lowered his voice again. “You still don’t believe me.”

“I am simply concerned, Karkat,” Kanaya explained. “Our feelings can be complicated to categorize sometimes, it happened to me before. I just don’t want you to repeat my mistakes.”

Karkat’s face expression softened and his lookstubs were looking at her with pale adoration. Kanaya had to look away, fully aware of the shine in her skin and the accelerated beating of her heart. If they were in a more private location, she would have hugged her moirail already, maybe even hauled him to one of their piles for a bit of cuddling. However, they were in the communal area, with everyone else. It was not the place or the moment to have such depraved thoughts. Kanaya should be ashamed of herself but, instead, she only felt a flutter of happiness inside her chest. Just knowing that she had such an amazing and affectionate moirail filled her up with warm feelings.

The chair next to Kanaya moved back on its own in a spark of blue-and-red psionics, and soon after Sollux was descending into it. He growled something that she could not understand but decided to consider a greeting, and he dropped one of the heavy safe cards on the table with a loud thump. Karkat almost jumped out of his seat with the sudden sound, but Sollux ignored him and began decoding the encryption on his card. 

Well, actually, that was Karkat’s old sylladex, so it was technically one of Karkat’s cards. Her moirail had explained to her the whole switching-sylladex agreement, and she could not help but found the situation quite lovely. Especially when both trolls could not stop bickering and molesting each other for more than two minutes. And the fact that they had switched them not once, but twice. Karkat was still stubbornly insisting on the belief that he was not capable of black romance, but Kanaya could see the spades dancing between them. Sollux would be a good kismesis for Karkat, someone to push him to be better but without truly aiming to hurt him. Kanaya sighed. If only her moirail were not so stubborn and narrow-minded about quadrants!

“What’s all this trash?” Karkat asked with a disgruntled face, gesturing at the recently decaptchalogued assortment of items on the table. “Did you really need to bring your stupid stuff to the Common Block?”

“Fuck off, KK,” Sollux replied automatically, his lookstubs never leaving the palmhusk he was dissembling. “If stupid things aren’t allowed in the common areas, what are you doing here?”

Kanaya smiled when she saw Karkat’s irritated expression. He could say whatever he wanted but nobody could annoy him as quickly and effortlessly as Sollux. If those were not black feelings flying between them, Kanaya was a normal troll. She squeezed Karkat’s arm once more before releasing him and sitting back properly on her chair. Their discussion would need to wait.

“What are you doing, Sollux?” she asked.

“I’m dissembling my palmhusk,” Sollux explained.

“We can see that, stupid-face,” Karkat replied. “What Kanaya is too polite to ask is why the fuck are you cannibalizing your only palmhusk? And, by the way, if you have so much free time, why don’t you fix my husktop?! You promised you would do it and it has been weeks!”

“Who says that it’s my only palmhusk?” Sollux growled back, finally removing the back protective cover of the device. “Contrary to other dumbasses I know, I have more than one computer. I have several piles of them, actually,” he said before looking up at Karkat with a malicious smile. “Maybe I can find an old computer for you. Even my oldest, brokest one would be better than the pile of junk you call a husktop.”

“Fuck you, Captor!” Karkat yelled, his face completely red.

“You wish,” Sollux countered with a wicked smile.

Karkat spluttered at that, clearly not expecting that reaction, and Sollux guffawed. He was laughing so hard that everyone looked at them with curious expressions. It was not long after that when Rose and Dave approached the table, each with two nutrition plateaus full of piles of brown flat food. Kanaya raised from her chair to help Rose bring enough empty nutrition plateaus, cups, drinks, and cutlery for everyone. Meanwhile, Dave took a couple of things out of the hunger trunk and sat in the last free chair.

Once in her previous seat, Kanaya noticed that Rose was sitting next to Karkat, with Dave and Mayor on her left side. Terezi had opted for sitting next to Sollux in the chair in front of Dave, and Vriska was on the last one. It was not as strange to have everyone sitting together at the same table for breakfast as it had been a few perigees ago. However, it was not an everyday occurrence. Sometimes Vriska and Terezi spent full nights exploring the meteor without coming back, or Sollux decided to lock himself in his section. There was also a memorable time, at the beginning of their moirallegiance, when Kanaya and Karkat had spent all morning together in one of her piles. Nevertheless, it was nice to eat breakfast with all of them together on the occasional morning they coincided.

“What the fuck is this shit-looking stuff?” Karkat protested, poking the food with a fork. “I thought you were the one cooking, Kanaya! You are the only one I trust to not poison me by accident or intentionally!”

“I wonder why anyone would want to poison you,” Dave muttered in his best sarcastic tone, but Karkat did not seem to hear him.

“Today, I wanted to try the human dish called _‘pancakes’_ ,” Kanaya explained. “Unfortunately, I was not able to complete it on my own. I apologize for dropping the skillet, Rose, it was not my intention.”

“There’s no need to apologize, Kanaya, it was my fault,” Rose smiled at her. “You prepared the mixture, which is the hard part. I only finished the job.”

Kanaya smiled at the polite lie. Rose was always too kind to her, it made her nervous sometimes. She was not used to receiving compliments so easily, especially in public. Karkat was lovely but reserved with his words, while Rose did not seem to care who was listening. It was something Kanaya could get used to, though.

“It smells so sweet and good!” Terezi exclaimed, dragging one of the nutrition plateaus near to her. “If you don’t want them, Karkles, I will eat your part!”

“Did I say I wasn’t going to eat it?!” Karkat exclaimed, his fork ready to drag one of the top pancakes, when suddenly all the nutrition plateaus with pancakes floated out of their reach. “Fuck! What the fuck are you doing, Sollux?! Put the food down!”

Kanaya smiled behind her recently acquired cup of tea at Sollux’s obvious call for Karkat’s attention. She crossed lookstubs with Rose and saw the same fond exasperation in her face. Interesting, Kanaya did not know that Rose and Sollux were that close. Maybe it should not surprise her after Rose’s predisposition to help during Sollux’s last Bad Mood. The human had been incredibly skilled at taking care of their friend.

“This was taking too long, I’m just helping,” Sollux shrugged, his prongs still occupied with electronics while the pancakes flew by themselves to each empty plateau. Everyone’s except for Karkat’s, of course.

“Cool! Thanks, dude!” Dave laughed with awe, like every time Sollux used his psionics near him. “Wait, Mayor! You need to add syrup first! Spit it out!”

“What the fuck, Sollux?!!” Karkat yelled, jumping on his chair to try to get the last pancake that was floating just out of his reach. “Will you stop being such a smelly pile of burned shit for once in your life?! Give. Me. Back. My. Food!”

“Oh, for fuck sake, Captor!” Vriska protested with an angry tone. “Stop black-flirting in public in such a shameful way or I will make you!”

Kanaya looked at Vriska, surprised by the anger and almost hurtful tone in her voice. The blue-blooded girl was picking at her pancake with a disgruntled expression as if the food had betrayed her. It made no sense, why was Vriska suddenly so furious? And with whom? It was not like her food could have offended her, and nobody had been teasing her for once. Even Sollux had treated her like everyone else. Well, everyone else but Karkat. 

Kanaya’s lookstubs fully opened with the realisation that maybe her ex-moirail was annoyed precisely because Sollux had not given her any special treatment. Like what he was doing with Karkat right now. The implication of what that could mean shocked Kanaya. Could it be really possible that Vriska was having black feelings towards Sollux? 

If that was the case, they were in trouble. Kanaya was pretty sure that Sollux’s hate for Vriska was purely platonic, and he was too focused on Karkat to even realise the situation. If gone unchecked, that could lead to Vriska hitting on Sollux aggressively the way she did with Tavros or even lead her to vent her frustrations on Karkat. Which would mean that Kanaya would have to interfere to protect her moirail, Sollux would probably try to kill Vriska for real in vengeance, and Terezi would find herself intersecting to protect her friend/possible moirail. The last thing they needed was more quadrant-inspired assassinations in the meteor. Kanaya would have to watch over the situation closely and be ready to auspisticise anyone suspicions of murderous intentions.

“Here, shut up and eat this!” Terezi’s voice interrupted her thoughts. Kanaya turned to her and saw the teal-blooded troll putting some pancake into Vriska’s mouth brusquely. “It’s good, right?”

Vriska growled something with her mouth full of food that Kanaya could not understand. She tried to interchange a look with Terezi, but it was hard to do that with a blind girl. Maybe she should talk with her later to ask for her take in the situation. She was pretty sure that Vriska and Terezi were moirails now, but they had not said anything yet or showed any pale-typical behaviour in public. However, seeing how easily Terezi had brought Vriska out of her brooding mood and distracted her from her probably murderous thoughts, Kanaya felt a bit of envy. It was clear now that Terezi was a more suited moirail for Vriska than Kanaya ever was or could be. She felt a bit of regret for the relationship that could have been but never was. Then, she turned her pan towards where Karkat was finally eating and yelling at everyone between bites, and she realised that all the pain had been worth it because it had led her to Karkat.

“May I ask what you are working on, Sollux?” Rose was asking at that moment.

“Sure, Lalonde,” the troll replied with a smirk. “You can ask.”

Kanaya giggled at Karkat’s frustrated complain of the _‘fucking exasperating, narcissistic, empty-sponged, poor excuse of a troll’_ and saw the amused smirk in Rose’s face.

“I deserved that,” she recognized with a mocking bow of her thinkpan. “Let me rephrase myself: what are you, Sollux Captor, doing with the electronic devices in your hands in this precise moment and place, and what is the final goal of this particular project?”

Sollux faked thinking it over as if he were looking for any fault in Rose’s demand. It was clear, though, that he was pleased with the human playing along with his little mental game. For a troll with shining, emotionless lookstubs, Sollux was quite transparent.

“Fuck, you got me good there,” Sollux said, before adding with a nasty smirk. “You pailed me so hard and fast that I will have to sit in the air from now on.”

Dave snorted into his drink, almost choking, and began coughing between surprised laughs. Terezi was also cracking her loud laugh and Karkat was looking at the ceiling, pretending to be frustrated but with his cheeks completely red. Rose, however, was still drinking her coffee with her usual calm and composure.

“Anytime,” she replied, before insisting on her previous topic. “You are avoiding my question, though.”

“Okay, okay,” Sollux surrendered, still smiling and clearly proud of everyone’s reaction. “I have been trying to contact AA lately in Trollian but there has been no way, so I’m working in a way to reach her even if she is lost somewhere in the middle of Paradox Space.”

“Oh, I didn’t think of that,” Rose said, apparently interested in the idea. “How are you going to do it? Space and time are not constant here, so, even if you could reach her, you don’t know when she would receive your message.”

“That’s not a problem, I already modified Trollian before to allow simultaneous communication with past and future versions of ourselves,” Sollux shrugged. “How do you think we managed to troll your kind through your full lifespan before the game? That option is blocked now because it was a nightmare, but I can activate it again if needed.”

“Please, don’t!” Terezi begged. “Don’t make us suffer from more past and future Karkats’ stupid arguments!”

“Oh, shut up, Terezi!” Karkat protested.

“I don’t know, it was quite funny actually,” Dave added. “It made Jade go nuts though. Fuck, I miss her and John!”

There was an uncomfortable moment of silence between the humans, Karkat and Vriska. Kanaya had also developed quite a liking for Jade in the short time they had talked during the humans’ game, but she was not sad by her absence. She was sure that Jade would make it to the new session on her own. She was quite a resourceful girl.

“Anyway,” Rose coughed, clearly trying to go back to the topic at prong. “The possibility to talk with our future and past selves is really interesting, I would like to try it sometime,” she commented. “But, what are you planning to do regarding the inconstant space situation, though?”

“Well, it’s just a hypothesis but there are some areas that are static even in Paradox Space,” Sollux explained. “Well, maybe not static because space can change around those areas and the inside is also fucked-up, but at least there are established and constant restricted margins.”

“You are talking about the dream bubbles,” Rose concluded with a surprised smile. “I never thought of it in this way but you are right. No matter where the bubbles are or the changes inside them, they are the only constantly defined space in Paradox Space.”

“Exactly!” Sollux exclaimed, clearly getting excited. “Now, we know there are some kind of servers somewhere in Paradox Space because if that wasn’t true, we wouldn’t have an intranet in the meteor.”

“I also uploaded a Sburb walkthrough in one of those servers once,” Rose confirmed.

“And I was able to download it when we were still in Alternia, so it’s clear that those servers are outside of time or session restrictions,” Kanaya added.

“That’s great, more confirmation of my theory!” Sollux smiled. “I also found a virus once in one of those servers that is probably still out there, somewhere. That’s where I got the idea from.”

“Right,” Rose nodded. “So, are you thinking of using the dream bubbles, somehow?”

“Yeah,” Sollux said. “I’m trying to create some kind of server or signal amplifier that we could leave in the dream bubbles. If we leave enough of them behind, maybe we will manage to create a broad enough network that will allow us to communicate to and between the bubbles.”

“Oi, Mr Appleberry! I have an objection! ” Terezi called from the other side of the table. “If I understood it correctly, you are trying to create a sort of internet inside the bubbles, right?

“Something like that, I guess,” Sollux shrugged.

“That is so cool, dude!” Dave exclaimed. “We have to call it Spacenet! Or Paranet!”

“Both names are cool, CoolKid, but I was actually getting to a point here!” Terezi protested. “What I wanted to say is that we don’t know if it’s possible to leave objects inside the dream bubbles. We tried taking things out, not putting them in and, in any case, it didn’t exactly work.”

“Well, we will have to try again, then!” Vriska concluded. “Or, if that doesn’t work, we could leave the punch code to the losers in the bubbles and tell them to alchemize it by themselves! It sounds like a good plan to me, being able to communicate with all the ghosts at any moment will make the collection of information easier for us!”

“Whatever, I don’t care about that,” Sollux shrugged. “I’m only doing this to check on AA.”

“Wait, wait, who is AA again?” Dave interrupted.

“Aradia, of course,”Sollux clarified with a roll of his invisible pupils. “What else could AA stand for?”

“Oh, shut up with your mockery, dude!” Dave protested. “I don’t get you stupid nickname rules! You use AA for Aradia and KK for Karkat, which makes sense, but you’re not calling Kanaya KN! Or using TZ for Terezi!”

“Of course not, those are horrible nicknames!” Sollux argued.

“See? That makes no sense!” Dave insisted. “It’s based on the exact same concept!”

“Those names sound horrible and that’s all I’m going to say about it!” Sollux declared. “I don’t have to explain myself to a weakly human, anyway!”

“Will you shut up about all that _‘trolls superiority’_ bullshit?!” Karkat protested. “I also believe that we trolls are vastly superior, but, as a race, we had millennials of evolution more than the humans did! For such a young race, they have done fairly well so far.” Karkat insisted. “Also, your obsession with binary and symmetry is ridiculous.”

“Shut your ignorance tunnel, KK!” Sollux growled.

“This debate reminds me that we have a duel pending, Sollux,” Rose interrupted. “We said that we would do it when you had your psionics back and now you do. Are you still up for it?”

“Seriously?” Sollux asked, clearly surprised by her suggestion. “You have seen only a glimpse of what I can do with my psionics. Do you really want to die so badly, Lalonde?!”

“I truly expect you to be capable of more than the few parlour tricks you’ve done so far or I will get bored too fast,” Rose replied with a threatening smile. “No serious injuries or killing and we have a judge to stop us if we lose control. Those were the rules we decided on, remember?”

“Good for me,” Sollux nodded with a malicious smile. “It will be fun to use my psionics for real, this meteor is too fragile for my taste.”

“Likewise,” Rose replied. “Will the next bubble be a good moment for you? I have the feeling that we will cross a big one in a few days. We can duel and leave one of your devices in the bubble afterwards, if it's ready.”

“Sure,” Sollux confirmed, extending his arm for an armshake.

Rose did not hesitate a second to reciprocate the gesture. After that, the topic was dropped and they went back to talking about Sollux’s project. It was interesting how well they got along, even despite Sollux’s contempt towards humans. Maybe after the duel he would change his mind, especially if Rose was as strong as Kanaya suspected. She wondered for a moment if that was Rose’s true intentions with that duel. Some kind of test to prove the human race’s value to the only troll still reluctant to accept them. She was certainly cunning enough to pull off such a subtle manipulation.

“Well, the food and the company were not bad for once, but we have new plans to make,” said Vriska while getting up and dragging Terezi behind her. “If we are going to create an extended paradox network, we need to decide what and from whom we are going to acquire our much-needed information!”

“But what about my tree?” Terezi protested, allowing herself to be dragged away.

“We will put it up later!” Vriska insisted.

“Wait! You didn’t clean up your mess!” Rose protested gesturing both to their empty meal utensils and the disaster in the centre of the block.

“No time for losers!” Vriska laughed just before jumping into the transportaliser, Terezi closely behind her.

“Fuck! Wait, Terezi!” Karkat yelled but the teal-blooded girl had already stepped into the pedestal and transportalized herself away. “Fuck, fuck, fuck! Kanaya, I have to go.” 

Kanaya looked at her moirail for a few seconds. She had a bad sensation about this, and she was almost tempted to stop him from going after Terezi. Kanaya was not a seer or a Mind player, but she considered herself a pretty good judge of character and her instinct was warning her that Terezi would not react well to Karkat’s declaration of red pity. She did not want him to be hurt, but she knew that she had no right to stop him. Not when he was so determined to see this through. Also, this was probably something he would have to do at some point or he would have the _‘what if’_ questions tormenting him for the rest of his life. Sometimes you need to suffer before you can begin healing properly.

“Of course, go,” she said, putting her prong on his arm again. “I will keep my Trollian online, so don’t be afraid to contact me at any moment. Regardless of her answer, I will be there for you if you need me.”

Karkat did not reply with words. He simply rested his prong over hers for a moment and smiled shyly at her before leaving. Kanaya felt a jab in her heart and found herself praying to gods she did not believe in for luck in Karkat’s stead. 

“What the fuck was that?!” she heard Sollux complaining. “That was pale as fuck, Kanaya! I almost threw up just from seeing it! I didn’t know you were such an exhibitionist!”

“Oh, hush,” Kanaya muttered, realising for the first time how her acts may have looked from an outside perspective. “It was an emergency situation.”

“Emergency my shame globes!” the troll exclaimed, clearly embarrassed with the situation. “That was completely out of place!”

“Wait, what? What happened?” Dave asked. “As far as I saw, Kanaya was just mother-henning Karkat as usual.”

“There was nothing usual in it!” Sollux exclaimed. “It was a full-on pale declaration, with inappropriate touching included!”

Dave’s ganderbrow raised a bit before he smiled maliciously and turned back to Rose, that was also smiling at him.

“Rose?” he called her.

“Yes, dear brother of my heart?” Rose replied with a sweetened voice.

“I just want you to know that I’ll always be there for you if you need me,” Dave continued with fake seriousness. “Raining or snowing, winning or losing, you can always count on me.”

“Oh, Dave!” Rose exclaimed with a fake high voice and her lookstubs open huge, exaggerating the situation even further. She moved closer to Dave and put a prong on top of one of Dave’s. “I will also be there for you if you need me, always. The distance doesn’t matter because our hearts are always connected.”

“Aaaaargh! Stop, stop, stop!” Sollux screamed while floating out of his chair, his prongs covering his yellow face. “I get it, ok?! This is not taboo for you, but it’s fucking embarrassing for trolls! Fuck! Now I can’t unsee it!”

Both Rose and Dave burst into full belly laughs at Sollux’s reaction. Kanaya was also a bit embarrassed by the show but she was immensely grateful for the distraction. Sollux grunted some half-hearted threats and flipped them all the featherbeast before picking up his things with his psionics and began floating towards the exit. His auricular sponge clots were still tinted gold. Kanaya jumped up from her seat, remembering something at the last minute.

“Sollux, wait a minute!” she called to him.

“What now?!” the troll replied, turning slightly towards her in the air.

“I usually would not ask this in normal circumstances, but, could you leave Karkat alone today?” she asked, cringing at the subtle implications of her request.

Sollux did not answer immediately, instead of that, he looked at her with a confused expression for almost a full minute.

“Are you asking me that as a friend, or as Karkat’s moirail?” he asked back.

“The second, I guess,” Kanaya confessed. “But I consider you my friend too, this is not meant to be a derogatory accusation.”

“Fine,” Sollux shrugged. “I will leave him be today, but if he pesters me I’m not staying quiet.”

“That’s fair,” Kanaya accepted. “Thank you.”

With a last confused look, Sollux left the block, leaving Kanaya with the two humans and the carapacian. The later being busy licking the sweet sugar in his nutrition plateau and ignoring everyone else.

“Well, that was weird,” Dave commented. “And before anyone else says anything else, let me stop all of you there. I don’t want to know,” he got up from his chair and picked up his and the carapacian’s plateaus. “I knew you would like it, Mayor! I bet there is still a bit of dough in the bowl. What do you think about grabbing that and a couple of drinks and going to Can Town for a bit?”

The Mayor was clearly excited by the idea because they began moving their arms in an excited and happy way. Kanaya helped Rose in cleaning up the table and looked around at the mess half cleaned off in the middle of the block. It figures that it would have to be her the one cleaning the other’s trash, again.

“Can I leave cleaning duties to you, guys?” Dave asked. “I shouldn’t have mentioned Can Town, now the Mayor is all excited to go.”

In effect, the carapacian was pulling weakly at Dave’s cape in a futile attempt to move the human towards the exit. The human was looking at the Mayor’s attempts with a fond and amused expression, but he was not moving an inch from the spot.

“It’s okay, Dave. You can go,” Rose dismissed him, “But you are on cleaning duty next time!”

“Sure!” Dave nodded before bending down to pick up the Mayor. “Come on, dude! Let’s go to Can Town!”

And, with that, he floated towards the transportaliser, the carapacian grabbing his neck with one prong and gesturing excitedly with the other. In a few moments, it was only Rose and Kanaya in the block. The human had begun cleaning the cooking utensils, so Kanaya stood close to her, being cautious to not be too close and cause another blood-thirst panic, and offered to dry them. They worked in silence for a few minutes until Rose began talking.

“So, it is true then?” she asked. “Are you and Karkat dating now?”

“Oh,” Kanaya muttered, embarrassed. “Yes, we are in a moirallegiance. It is still quite new, so I apologize if we incommoded you.” 

“There’s nothing to apologize for. I guess you’re still in the honeymoon stage,” Rose shrugged. “Also, the kind of things you and Karkat do are quite frequent behaviour between close friends in my world,” Rose added. “Or at least it was, I guess I should talk in the past now that there is no Earth.”

“I understand the feeling,” Kanaya replied. “I also think of Alternia as a reality instead of a dead planet.”

“Yeah, it’s hard,” Rose said. “However, we were talking about something else. I must confess that I’m a bit confused about your species’ romantic quadrants,” she insisted. “Moirallegiance is the platonic quadrant, right?”

“I’m not the best person to talk about this topic,” Kanaya confessed. “You should talk with Karkat about it if you are interested. He loves talking about quadrantic romance and has an extensive library of books and movies he would be happy to show you.”

“Maybe I will do it at some point,” Rose nodded. “However, I get the feeling that now isn’t the best moment to ask. Forgive me if I’m too forward, but he is probably declaring his romantic intentions to Terezi now, right?”

Kanaya tensed in response to that question. It had been probably quite obvious, especially for someone so intelligent as Rose, but asking about the feelings of someone else’s moirail was quite the rude gesture. It was apparent that the human had noticed Kanaya’s discomfort because she rushed to apologize.

“I’m sorry if I crossed some boundary with my curiosity, it was not my intention to offend you,” she said. “Human’s curiosity is a powerful trait and we are all a bit too interested in each other’s lives, sometimes. These types of questions are usual for me, but you don’t have to answer them if they make you feel uncomfortable.”

“Asking about someone else’s moirail’s feelings is quite rude,” Kanaya explained. “It can be considered a threat, an open declaration of someone’s intentions to steal one’s moirail. It usually ends in blood.”

“Oh,” Rose whispered. “I’m sorry, that was not my intention at all, Kanaya, I promise. My question came purely from my lack of understanding of the situation. I would never try something like that!”

Kanaya relaxed. Of course, Rose was human, after all. She just did not know the trolls’ social rules. In a way, it was better that she was asking now. Kanaya feared to think about what an inquiry like that could lead to if asked to the wrong troll.

“I understand,” Kanaya said, turning to Rose to offer her a smile. “But you must also realise that there are several social taboos in my culture. I’m not saying that I agree with all of them, but it could be dangerous to ask personal questions to some trolls. It could cause serious misunderstandings.”

“Right,” the human nodded. “But that’s even more reason for me to ask, how am I supposed to learn what I don’t know if I’m not allowed to ask questions?”

“I have a couple of books you could borrow if you wish,” Kanaya conceded. “And, as I said, Karkat will be probably happy to instruct you in everything related to quadrants.”

Rose nodded again and stayed silent for a moment. She had a thoughtful expression in her face, so Kanaya was not surprised when she began talking again. It was clear that Rose could not stand not knowing something. Her aspect was Light, after all, and those were the seekers of knowledge and good fortune. It really suited her.

“Can you at least clarify something for me?” Rose asked. “I’m assuming that Karkat has romantic intentions towards Terezi due to your previous conversation with him. There is also something going on between him and Sollux, and everyone is always teasing them about black-flirting,” Rose summarised, clearly not expecting confirmation from Kanaya, which was good because she had no intention of betraying her moirail’s trust. “And you are already dating him in the pale quadrant. I just can’t understand how someone can have a romantic interest in three different individuals and everyone be alright with it.”

Oh, so it was not only gossip interest what was behind Rose’s questions. She was trying to understand the complexity of trolls’ romance. Kanaya was not sure if she was the best suited to explain this.

“As far as I understand, humans only feel romantic feelings for one individual, is that right?” she asked.

“Well, not always, there are some cases of polyamorous relationships among humans too. However, even in those rare cases, the feelings between individuals are the same,” Rose explained. “What we call _‘love’_ is a complex and probably the strongest emotion a person can feel for one another. We don’t have platonic love or romantic hate, only love. ”

“Were all romantic relationships the same in your culture?” Kanaya insisted. “I mean in the basics of the couple interactions, regardless of individual differences.”

“I guess? I suppose that some couples behaved differently than the _‘standard ideal’_ ,” Rose said doubtfully while finishing cleaning the last nutrition plateau. “There were cases of people fighting constantly but still staying together or romantic couples that had no interest in sexual physical interactions, but those were usually a minority. We called the feeling between them _‘love’_ in all the cases.”

“Humans also have deep feelings for their guardians and hatchmates, right?” she asked, trying to understand that concept herself. “Trolls were raised by creatures only a little more intelligent than animals for generations, and we were isolated soon after surviving the cave trials. As a consequence, we rarely had the opportunity to establish those types of connections with other trolls.”

“I see,” Rose muttered. “Familial love can be quite strong for humans. Not everyone gets along with their blood family, but sometimes we find our own family in outsiders. Dave is like a brother to me, regardless of our ectobiological parentage.”

“I get the impression that your familial love could be close to the pale quadrant, even if it is a bit different,” Kanaya commented while dropping the last utensil on its place. “A moirail is someone special to you, someone that you trust completely and that you have a strong desire to protect and help. A troll with which you can be completely vulnerable, physically and mentally, and trust that they would be there to grab the pieces of your soul and forge it anew.” Kanaya couldn’t stop her smile when thinking about her moirail. “Of course, it’s a two-way pact, so you are meant to do and be the same for them.”

Rose was smiling lovingly at her, a wistful glint in her lookstubs. Kanaya wondered, not for the first time, if humans were also capable of pale feelings.

“That sounds lovely, Kanaya, I’m glad you have found your special person,” Rose said with a voice that sounded a bit sad. “But, that’s quite how love is for humans, too. I don’t really see the difference.”

“Well, a moirallegiance doesn’t have reproduction as a goal,” she clarified, feeling her embarrassment on her face.

“Wait, you are talking about sex, then?” Rose fancied her ganderbrows. “How is that possible? What you just described was the epitome of love, are you saying that there is no sex involved?”

Okay, NOW she was embarrassed! Kanaya sighed into her prongs, knowing that she was shining brightly. She looked around for something to do to distract herself from such an embarrassing conversation. Maybe if she focused on cleaning the mess in the centre of the block, she would be able to talk about this without dying of embarrassment. She picked up a rag and moved to the still-wet floor.

“In Alternia, reproduction was mandatory,” she tried to explain. “Trolls that could not provide the genetic material from a sexual interaction with a black and a red partner on the night of pail recollection where culled on the spot.”

“That’s horrible,” Rose said while grabbing another rag. “So, red and black quadrants were mandatory. What about the pale one, then?”

“Moirallegiance is a conciliatory quadrant, meant to help trolls restrain their violent impulses and avoid an excessive decrease of the population,” Kanaya elaborated. “Or at least, that’s how it began. In reality, the red quadrant and the pale quadrant are quite similar and vacillation between them is pretty common. The principal difference is a strong physical attraction in the red quadrant, while pale intimacy has a more platonic feel.”

“Oh,” Rose whispered. “That’s why Sollux was so flustered by a few words.”

“You have to keep in mind that we trolls have a tendency towards distrust, violence and self-preservation,” she insisted. “We do not trust easily or show any weakness because it could easily be the last thing we do. That is why declarations of trust and mutual support are so important and sought after. Finding one’s moirail is as special as finding the perfect matesprit or kismesis.”

Rose nodded reflectively again, and Kanaya hoped that was the end of the conversation. It was getting too embarrassing for her, but she was unsure of how to change the topic without being too rude or offending Rose.

“I still don’t fully understand how a whole race would be okay with polyamorous relationships, but I guess that I have embarrassed you enough for one day,” Rose said with a smile. “I would appreciate those books if you don’t mind. Especially some with red and pale relationships on them, maybe it will help me understand the difference better.”

Kanaya sighed, grateful for her bit of luck and smiled at the human girl. She would give all her books to Rose if that would mean never having a conversation like that again.

“I have some that you can borrow,” Kanaya offered. “We could get to my respiteblock when we are done here, and I will show you my favourites.”

“Thanks, Kanaya, that would be lovely,” Rose smiled at her.

With that, they changed the topic to something infinitely less embarrassing. Kanaya promised herself to mention Rose’s interest in quadrants to Karkat as soon as possible. Anything to avoid more quadrant-specific personal questions.

* * *

Kanaya was still in her respiteblock with Rose when she got the, oh so feared, Trollian notification. She almost dropped her book in her rush to open the application.

carcinoGeneticist [CG]  began trolling grimAuxiliatrix [GA] at 13:30

CG: YOU WERE RIGHT, THIS WAS AN HORRIBLE IDEA

CG: I SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO YOU

CG: I’M SO FUCKING STUPID

GA: Oh Sweetheart

GA: You Are Not Stupid You Are Lovely

CG: YOU CLEARLY HAVE HORRIBLE TASTE

GA: Hush I Am Coming Over

GA: And Do Not Even Try To Argue With Me About That

GA: Where Are You Right Now

CG: …

GA: Karkat Love I Can Find You Even If You Do Not Tell Me

GA: It Will Just Take A Bit Longer And I Would Prefer To Spend That Time With You Instead Of Checking Every Corner Of The Meteor

CG: FUCK, OK, I’M IN MY RESPITEBLOCK. YOU CAN COME IN, I DIDN’T BLOCK THE TRANSPORTALIZER

CG: I MEAN, IF YOU WANT TO COME. YOU DON’T HAVE TO IF YOU HAVE OTHER PLANS, I’M FINE

GA: Are You Really

Kanaya raised her lookstubs from her palmhusk momentarily to explain the situation to Rose. Kanaya wanted to run to Karkat’s side right at that moment but she was not comfortable with leaving Rose without at least an explanation.

“Rose, I am afraid that I have to go now,” she said quickly, already captchaloguing a couple of things she would need. “Karkat needs me.”

“Of course,” Rose nodded, getting up from her seat and palming out the wrinkles in her clothes. “I hope he is okay.”

“Me too,” Kanaya agreed before checking again her Trollian.

CG: YES! I’M PERFECTLY FINE! WHO CARES IF TEREZI WON’T EVEN TRY ANYTHING WITH ME FOR A SHITFUCK REASON THAT IT’S NOT A REASON AT ALL?! NOT ME!

CG: WHO CARES IF SHE IS SO FUCKING TERRIFIED TO MESS THIS UP THAT SHE WON’T EVEN FUCKING TRY?! BECAUSE OF COURSE SHE BELIEVES ALL THE NONSENSE FROM JOHN FUCKING EGBERT WITHOUT EVEN QUESTIONING IT FOR A SINGLE FUCKING SECOND BUT SHE WON’T EVEN TRY TO LISTEN TO ME!

CG: FUCK EGBERT FOR MAKING MY LIFE HARDER EVEN WHEN HE IS NOT IN THE FUCKING SAME DIMENSION AS US! FUCK FUTURE TEREZI FOR HER CRYPTIC AND INESPECIFIC RIDDLES! AND FUCK CURRENT TEREZI FOR HAVING HER THINKPAN SO FAR INTO HER WASTE CHUTE THAT SHE CAN TASTE THE SHIT MARINATING IN HER GASTRIC EVACUATION GLAND! WHY SHOULD IT MATTER WHO GETS HURT IN THE WAY AS LONG AS HER LITTLE BULLSHIT PERSONAL GROWING ARC IS COMPLETE WITH A FUCKING HAPPY ENDING?!

CG: BUT IT’S OKAY, BECAUSE I’M FINE WITH IT, ALL OF IT. SO, YOU DON’T NEED TO WORRY ABOUT ME KANAYA, BECAUSE I AM FUCKING OKAY!

GA: You Do Not Sound Okay For Me Sweety

Kanaya felt a prong on her arm and stopped looking at the screen just the time needed to realise that it was Rose. The human was gently pushing her towards the hall outside of her respiteblock, guiding her towards the exit without a single complaint. Kanaya wanted to smile at Rose and express how grateful she was for her sympathy, but she was too worried about Karkat to even try. She brought back her attention to the chat conversation, her lookstubs checking the path in front of her sporadically to avoid crashing into a wall in her distraction.

CG: OH, FOR THE UNHOLY SAKE OF THE SHITTY EMPTY-SPONGED, UGLY AS HEAVEN, MADDENING TERRIFYING OUTER GODS!

CG: I DON’T CARE HOW I SOUND! I. AM. FUCKING. FINE!!!

GA: Then You Will Not Mind If I Come To Your Respiteblock For A Visit

GA: I Have A Movie That I Have Been Wanting To Watch For Quite Some Time Now And It Will Delight Me If You Were To See It With Me

CG: WHAT?! A MOVIE?! FOR REAL?!

CG: OF ANYTHING YOU COULD HAVE SUGGESTED WHY A FUCKING MOVIE?! I’M NOT IN THE MOOD FOR ONE OF YOUR BLOOD-OBSESSED, CLICHE CHARACTERS RIGHT NOW!

GA: I Got The Impression That You Were *Fucking Okay* So I Do Not See The Problem In Offering To See A Movie Together Like We Do Occasionally

CG: FUCK, YOU GOT ME THERE

CG: YOU KNOW WHAT? WHY THE FUCK NOT?! BRING YOUR CHEESY AS FUCK MOVIE SO AT LEAST I WILL HAVE SOMEONE TO YELL AT WITHOUT FEELING BAD ABOUT IT AFTERWARDS!

GA: Lovely I Am Almost At The Signs Block Already

GA: I Am Going To Leave This Conversation Momentarily To Say Farewell To Rose But I Will Be Right There In A Few Minutes

CG: OKAY, JUST, DON’T TAKE TOO LONG

CG: PLEASE

carcinoGeneticist [CG]  ceased trolling grimAuxiliatrix [GA]  at 13:36

With that, Kanaya put her palmhusk in her pocket, careful to not captchalogue it because she did not have the time to look for the correspondent Auxiliatrix Key. They had reached the transportaliser to exit Kanaya’s section and she did not doubt a second before stepping on it.

Once she materialised in the Signs Block, she jumped off the platform, waited for Rose to transportalise in, and offered a prong to help her descent to the ground. Rose raised a ganderbrow and accepted Kanaya’s offer of help with the look of someone gracefully granting a rare privilege only as a courteous gesture. Kanaya was fully aware of Rose’s capabilities both in and out of battle and she did not mean to be disrespectful or condescending. It had been an honest gesture that had been almost automatic. She hoped that Rose had not taken offence by it, but the human was so hard to read. Sometimes she was lovely and almost affectionate with Kanaya, and sometimes she behaved as if Kanaya were accusing her of being inept and mental challenged. It was so confusing. Interesting, but confusing.

“I apologize for having to leave you on such a short notice,” Kanaya said.

“Nonsense,” Rose replied with a vague gesture of her prong, “I already knew it could happen at any moment, I am grateful that we could spend some time together. I hope everything turns out to be alright with Karkat.”

“I appreciate your understanding and your concern,” she gave her the best smile she could while still being worried sick about her moirail. “I hope you like these books. If you let me know when you are done with them, we can analyse them together.”

“I will do that, thanks for letting me borrow them,” Rose nodded. “I will not take more of your time. Please, let me know if there is anything I can do to help you.”

“Thanks, I will consider it,” Kanaya conceded diplomatically but without being really willing to bother Rose with her troubles.

With that, Rose stepped on the transportaliser to Nepeta’s old section, which had been converted into Rose’s private area a few perigees ago. Kanaya waited until the human’s body had completely disintegrated into molecules to be transportalised away before jumping into the pedestal to Karkat’s section. Once in his area, she stopped only to block the transportaliser with one of the big boxes in her sylladex, kept for that exact purpose, and she almost ran towards Karkat’s respiteblock. She slowed down to a normal troll walk speed just before reaching the door, trying to project calmness and security, and entered the block. 

Karkat was on top of one of his piles of books and movies, hiding his face between his raised knees, and with his favourite brown blanket covering him. He looked heartbroken, alone, and miserable. Kanaya hated herself for allowing Karkat’s heart to be broken in such a painful way, but tried to remember that it was for the best. Karkat would heal from this, Kanaya would make sure of it. He would move on, fall in flush with someone else, someone that felt the same way for him, and he would not have any regrets. She knew this was the best on the long-term, but that did not make it hurt less now.

“Oh love, I am so sorry,” she said and rushed into the pile, instantly hugging Karkat and kissing his covered hair. “I wish this would have ended differently for you.”

Karkat’s body tensed for a moment at the contact and Kanaya chastised herself mentally for rushing in instead of making sure beforehand that physical contact was good. However, Karkat relaxed quickly and his prongs released his strut sticks to hug Kanaya’s waist instead. She moved a bit to better accommodate their bodies until they were laying together on their side, with Karkat tightly held between her arms, still half-covered by his blanket. He was sobbing quietly with his lookstubs firmly pressed against Kanaya’s chest as if trying to not let her see a single tear. It broke Kanaya’s heart to see this part of his moirail, the part that was actively hiding anything that could reveal Karkat’s true blood colour. She was sure that her moirail knew that he was not at risk to be culled for being a mutant anymore, but some instincts were hard to forget.

It took some time for Karkat to calm down but there was nowhere else where Kanaya would rather be at that moment. Eventually, the tears ended and Kanaya’s moirail stopped sobbing. She kept petting Karkat’s back over the blanket and did not move until the other troll pulled back his pan a bit to scrub at his lookstubs. Kanaya took his prongs into hers gently and kissed both his stublids before drying the remaining tears herself with the back of her prong.

“Do you feel a bit better?” she whispered.

“Yeah, I think so,” Karkat replied hoarsely. “Sorry for being such a failure of a troll.”

“Everyone cries when they get their heart broken,” Kanaya answered gently. “I cried like a waterfall when Vriska broke mine.”

Karkat did not react to the Vriska-shaped bait. He simply nodded and rubbed his sniff nub. He still had a sad expression on his face but he seemed a bit more composed, a bit more stable. Kanaya raised her prong and patted him slightly on his cheek. He could decidedly use the comfort and the hormonal-induced peace.

“I’m sorry for making you come here,” Karkat was saying, still gloomy even when a soft purr was growing in his chest. “I shouldn’t have involved you in my mess, especially when you warned me beforehand, but I just couldn’t. I wanted you here, I needed you here. I’m so selfish, Kanaya, I don’t deserve you.”

“Shooosh,” Kanaya shoshed him while increasing the speed and intensity of her papping. “Someone wise told me once that a moirallegiance is a two-way deal. I want to be here, Karkat, I want to take care of you.”

“That sounds like the advice of a really stupid guy,” Karkat protested weakly with a small smile. “I really don’t know what I did in my past or alternate lives to deserve you, Naya, but I’m glad. Thank you for being here.”

Kanaya’s heart suffered a painful squeeze with the wave of pity that inundated her, and she leaned forward to leave a short pale kiss on Karkat’s lips. They did not say much for a while, simply taking solace in each other. Finally, Kanaya found the courage to ask the question she had been dreading to ask.

“Can you tell me what happened?” she said as gently as she could.

Karkat did not answer immediately. Instead, he moved a bit backwards until only their prongs were still in contact. The look in his lookstubs was full of sadness and confusion.

“I don’t really want to talk about it but I guess I should,” he whispered. “That’s the type of thing you are supposed to tell your moirail, right?”

“Only if you want,” Kanaya insisted. “There is no obligation here.”

“No, I think that I actually want to talk about it,” Karkat replied with a pensive tone. “Maybe you’d be able to make more sense of Terezi’s shitty excuses than me.

“You mentioned something about John in our Trollian conversation,” Kanaya encouraged him.

“Yeah, exactly!” Karkat exclaimed, suddenly angry. “Apparently, Egbert told her not to date me! Or not to date anyone?! I don’t know, it was a shitty excuse and it didn’t make any fucking sense, especially coming from Egbert! Why would he care about who Terezi dates anyway?!”

“Maybe you should begin explaining it from the beginning,” she suggested, trying to understand the context. “What happened when you left the Common Block? Your conversation actually took longer than I expected.”

“Right, that makes sense, sorry,” her moirail agreed. “And no. In reality, our conversation was quite short and involved a lot of screaming from both sides. What did take me so long was finally getting rid of Serket,” he explained. “I swear that the fucker spidertroll is the most persistent gossip-seeker I have ever had the misfortune to meet!”

Kanaya blinked at that. Of all the adjectives that trolls had used to describe Vriska, it was the first time that someone called her a gossiper. It was almost funny.

“I get that you convinced her to leave you alone with Terezi?” Kanaya asked, trying to move along the conversation to the point she was more interested in.

“Yeah, I had to promise her that I would help with some shit she wants for her schemes. Something she called _‘completing the character's profiles’_ or something equally ridiculous,” was Karkat's explanation. “The point is that I managed to get Terezi alone and, even before I said anything, I could sense that she didn’t want to be there. Which didn’t exactly help.”

“Oh dear, that was rude of her,” Kanaya said, feeling her own irritation with Terezi’s attitude. “If she had an inkling of your intentions, the least she could have done was being polite and respectful about it!”

“Well, Terezi is not exactly known by her subtlety or her manners,” Karkat rolled back his lookstubs. “So, in summary, I babbled a bit and messed up the speech I had prepared, but in the end I managed to tell her that I wanted to be matesprits with her.”

“That was really brave, especially if she had been so unreceptive from the beginning,” she said, remembering that she had never found the courage to tell Vriska her true feelings in person. Her moirail was truly amazing. “How did she react?”

“I think she tried to let me down gently, at least in the beginning, but she wasn’t giving me a fucking reason for it so I insisted and kept pushing her,” he said with a guilty voice. “I mean, if she’d told me something like _‘I don’t have flush feelings for you’_ or something direct like that I would have let it go! But, instead, she said that she _‘couldn’t’_ be with me, that she _‘couldn’t’_ be in a romantic relationship with any of the guys in the meteor and she wasn’t giving me a fucking reason for that!”

“It certainly is a strange way to refuse a declaration of flush intentions,” Kanaya concurred. “I would have probably insisted for a better explanation too if I had been in that situation.”

“Right?! It just didn’t make any fucking sense!” Karkat yelled, letting go of her prong and sitting up, probably to be able to better gesticulate his frustration. “Especially the rule being only applied to the boys! That’s gender discrimination!”

“Did she give you an elaborate reason in the end?” Kanaya sat up too, trying to come up with an explanation for Terezi’s weird answer.

“Not right then, instead that was the moment the screaming began!” Kanaya’s moirail said, raising from the pile to begin walking in circles. “It was just so frustrating! So, I began yelling, she began yelling back, we said a lot of fucking shit that I’m not sure if we meant or not, and, finally, she mentioned some messed-up messages that future-Terezi and Egbert left her with his rewriting-the-past weird powers,” he elaborated. “And, apparently, one of the messages was all about warning her not to date someone.”

Kanaya needed a moment to process all the information that Karkat had just spit out at a dizzying speed. She remembered the future-John that saved Vriska’s life and made sure that Sollux stayed on the meteor this time. And the red scarf full of instructions made with Terezi’s quirk, handwriting and blood. At that moment she only really focused on the sentence mentioning Karkat, at the bottom of the list, but she did not remember seeing anybody else’s name in there.

“You mean the instructions in the scarf that John showed me?” she asked, still trying to remember if she had read anything else than the last instruction.

“Oh, right! You saw it!” Karkat exclaimed, turning to her. “Do you remember reading anything about this?”

“Not really,” Kanaya confessed. “I was only concerned about the part where it mentioned you and I do not remember reading anything else. Regardless of that, it has been several perigees since then, and I would have probably forgotten it by now, anyway.”

“Fuck, that’s right,” Karkat swore, his sadness forgotten for the moment. “Well, it was a good try.”

“Can you tell me what she said exactly?” Kanaya insisted. “Her exact words if you remember them.”

“Well, she screamed something like _‘I can’t because then we would be doomed’_ and something about John messing up with her plushies and that THAT had to be a sign, somehow,” Karkat explained. “Now that I think about it, she seemed really stressed up about all this shit. I think that future-Terezi said something cryptic like ‘ _don’t date him’_ or _‘you don’t need him’_ or something fucked up like that, but she didn’t specify who she was referring to.”

“So, Terezi doesn’t know who her future version was warning her against?” she wondered. “Wouldn't that mean that maybe it is not you?”

“See? That’s where Egbert added his drop of blood in the conversation. And he messed everything up, as usual,” he said with an almost resigned tone of voice. “Apparently, he rambled about future-Terezi dating both me and Strider at some point and not ending well for anyone. So, obviously, Terezi took that to her blood pusher and convinced herself not to date EITHER of us just to be sure that she was not dooming the timeline.”

Oh. That was, as Karkat liked to say, really fucked up. Kanaya guessed that if it had been only the initial message, Terezi might not have been so worried about getting close to Karkat and Dave. However, with adding someone's name to that warning, the only thing John accomplished was to make Terezi suspicious of everyone and maybe turned her a bit paranoid. That was probably why initially future-Terezi had been ambiguous in her warning. Time-travel was a nightmare and Kanaya was so grateful that it was not her Aspect. She would be too scared to do anything that could change the course of history.

“I suppose that explains why she had been keeping her distance from Dave lately,” she commented, trying to get an idea of how worried Terezi had to be to keep avoiding two of her friends. “Time-travel is so confusing.”

“Oh. OH!” Karkat exclaimed, probably just then realising that he wouldn’t need to worry about Dave stealing Terezi from him anymore. He let himself fall back onto the pile with a shocked expression. “I didn’t think of that, fuck, that’s messed up!” he growled, pinching the base of his nose. “Do you think he knows? Strider, I mean.”

Kanaya thought about that, remembering the confused looks that Dave sent to Terezi sometimes when she was avoiding his lookstubs. No, she did not think that he knew. She almost felt platonic pity for the human boy, he was probably wondering if he was responsible for Terezi’s cold treatment. 

“I don’t believe he knows,” Kanaya replied, shaking her pan. “He does not seem to be angry at her, only confused. Maybe even sad.”

“Strider, sad?” Karkat snorted. “How can you tell? He’s as expressive as a rock and he always wears those stupid sunglasses that hide half of his face. I doubt he’s even capable of having feelings.”

“Maybe you are not paying enough attention, Karkat,” she said. “There are other signs to look for. I can assure you that he is aware of Terezi avoiding him and he is not happy about it.”

“You know what? I think that makes me feel a bit better,” Karkat commented, pensive. “Not the fact that Terezi is also messing things with him, not even I am that petty,” he rushed to clarify as if Kanaya would ever accuse him of being mean. “I think that what’s comforting to me is the idea that it’s not only me, that there is someone else in the same situation. I guess that it makes me feel like it’s a _‘Terezi’s problem’_ and not a _‘me’_ problem. Does it make any sense?”

“Yes, it does,” Kanaya agreed. “Terezi is obviously going through something difficult and she is choosing to avoid both of you because of it. It does not reflect any inadequacy either in you or Dave, but in herself,” she looked sidewise at Karkat, who seemed to be feeling a lot better already. “Do you regret it?”

Karkat snapped out of his thoughts and turned to Kanaya, apparently surprised by her question. He then looked up at the ceiling for a moment, probably thinking it over. There were still traces of tears on his cheeks but his lookstubs looked cleared now, almost lighter. Kanaya hoped it was a good sign.

“I thought I would, but somehow I don’t. It’s funny, but I don’t actually regret embarrassing myself with that stupid flush declaration,” he said, looking back at her and smiling a bit. “It still hurts, but if I hadn’t asked, who knows how long I would have spent looking for signs and double-meanings in each of her words and actions? If she wasn’t going to date me anyway for such a shitty reason, I’m glad that I didn’t spend more time worrying about it,” he said with almost unexpected wisdom. “At least now I know that it’s not an option. She can go fuck herself for what I care!” 

Kanaya grabbed his prong between hers, happy that Karkat was already healing. As he had said, it would still hurt for quite some time but the pain would eventually go away. Kanaya was sure of that. As sure as she was that there was someone, somewhere, that would fall strut pods over horns in flush with Karkat. He was too lovely, generous and brave for having it otherwise.

“I’m happy to hear you say that,” she said. “I know it will hurt for a bit but you will heal and find your matesprit one day.”

“Thank you, Kanaya,” Karkat smiled. “Now, I think I was promised a film. Or was that just an excuse to see me?”

“In fact, I brought a movie that Rose recommended to me,” she said, using the Auxiliatrix Key, conveniently appearing just then mixed with Karkat’s things in his pile, to decaptchalogue a human husktop and a small disc in a box with a familiar couple in the front of it.

“Wait! Are those human versions of troll Robinp Atinsn and Kristy Stwart?” Karkat said, recognising them immediately. “They look horrible! What happened to Kristy’s loving curved horns?” he asked, obviously not expecting an answer. “Oh! Are you telling me that this is the human version of _‘When a lowblood troll moves to a new city for her mandatory battle instruction and draws the attention of the mysterious highblood sought by everyone in the camps, but that is in secret an undead rainbow drinker trying to pass for a regular troll, and they fall in a tumultuous flush relationship that surpasses expectations, class differences and the return of the highblood jealous ex-kismesis, which tries to cull the main female character. Includes betrayal, lowblood/highblood forbidden relationship, deception, alive/undead relationship and the dead of the handsome ex-kismesis.”_

“The human’s name for the movie is _‘Twilight’_ , which I find a lot easier to remember,” Kanaya explained. “Also, I believe the actors' names and appearance are a bit different, probably due to their humanity, but the resemblance is quite fascinating, don't you think?” she added excitedly. “Unfortunately, at the time our friends entered the game, only the first movie had been released, so we will not know how the human’s version dealt with Sbella vacillating from red to black on Edward and the incorporation of Jaccob as the new quadrantmate. It is such a shame.”

“Oh, shut up Naya. Those movies are horrible and I’m happy that there is only one of them to suffer through,” Karkat complained half-heartedly. “Why does the grubmovie look like that, though? It seems dead.”

“Human’s technology is only inorganic, remember?” Kanaya explained. “This is called a DVD and Rose showed me how to use it, let me try.”

It took a couple of attempts to turn on the human husktop and a bit of fiddling around with the computer’s keys to open the compartment for the movie, but once inside it began reproducing automatically. They put the husktop in a smaller pile in front of them and they cuddled together on the large one. It took not more than five minutes for Karkat to begin yelling at the computer, distraught by the lack of alternian references and bad storytelling. Kanaya smiled to herself, happy to see Karkat acting like his usual self, and she cuddled closer to him.

When it finished, they found several human movies already in the computer in a folder called _‘Movies for Kanaya’_ and they settled down for a large marathon.

* * *

The scene surrounding them was a mix of Sgrub and Alternian landscape. It actually reminded Kanaya of the desert near her old hive, but there were some additional frog runes here and there that were typically from the game. On the horizon, Kanaya could see some taller buildings and a different landscape, probably based on someone else’s memories. It would not be the first time they found themselves in a bubble containing different memory-based environments. It usually reflected the inhabitants of the bubble.

The emptiness of the desert was, in fact, perfect for their goal. Kanaya, Karkat, Dave, and the Mayor were sitting together on top of a huge frog statue. In front of them, on the ground, Terezi and Vriska were giving their last warnings and rules to Rose and Sollux before the beginning of their duel. It had been decided that Terezi would be the one to decide if the duel had to be stopped at any moment. Vriska was with her as additional support due to her ability to put Rose to sleep instantly and the 50% possibility of mind-controlling Sollux. Everyone else observing the duel would also help in restraining the dualists if needed but they were a bit further, so Terezi and Vriska would be the first reaction team.

Kanaya took a subtle look at Karkat sitting on her side to check how he was doing. After his failed flush-declaration to Terezi the week before, there had been some awkwardness between them. Karkat was probably still angry and heartbroken and Terezi had her own problems, so they were mostly avoiding each other as much as they could. That had translated into Vriska getting food for her and Terezi in the mornings, sending murdering glances to Karkat, and both of them disappearing in the depths of the meteor for longer than usual.

Kanaya had actually been surprised when Terezi insisted on acting as a referee instead of running away from Karkat again. Maybe it was due to her sense of responsibility. There was certainly nobody else in their group capable of being an objective referee, someone who would let the duelists fight all out but also had the good sense of knowing when to stop them. Dave and Karkat would probably be too worried about Rose and Sollux’s wellbeing, respectively, and stop them too soon. The Mayor was out of the question, and Vriska would let them dismember each other before even considering stopping them. Kanaya could have acted as a referee because she cared about both opponents, but she did not like to see her friends being hurt. She would have offered to do it if Terezi had not, but she was glad that it had not been the case. It would have been a huge responsibility that she did not feel quite comfortable with.

“Okay losers on the frog, listen up!” Vriska called, flying slowly towards them. “I don’t care how much of a whiny all of you are or what your poor-compartmentalised thinksponges believe, do NOT interfere unless we say so!”

“Fuck off, Vriska!” Karkat replied in his usual fake angry tone. “I will interfere if I want to!”

“Don’t make me put you to sleep Karkat, because I will do it if I need so!” the blue-blooded girl insisted. “I need to be focused on the duel and not worry about any of you getting in the middle and being killed by accident! Especially you, Crabkat! You’re still a weakly mortal!”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Dave shrugged. “We will behave, spidermom, stop worrying.”

Vriska sent the human an annoyed look, but for once she let the comment go and turned back towards the ones on the ground.

“Everyone is ready here!” she yelled to Terezi and began descending before turning towards the dualists. “Have fun you two and make it worth my time!”

Terezi nodded to her before walking back to the base of the frog statue. A few dozen steps in front of them, Rose and Sollux both gave a short bow, which was a human tradition, and then they both flew away simultaneously at a neck-breaking speed. Soon they were half a hundred steps above them, with blue-red electricity jumping around Sollux and a black aura surrounding Rose. From around them, half-buried statues and ruins began rising from the ground, surrounded by Sollux’s psionics, and were thrown towards the human. Rose avoided all the rocks with short, strategic movements in mid-air, but the debris kept circling back and coming back at her after each pass. 

“Is that all you can do, Lalonde?!” Sollux yelled at her with a laugh. “You will never win if you just run away!”

Rose ignored him and kept flying with calculated movements. It looked as if she was simply avoiding the attacks but Kanaya noticed that she kept herself higher than Sollux, and she was getting closer to the troll with each subtle moment.

“Come on Rose!” Dave was whispering next to her. “What are you doing?! You’ll get hurt if you keep this up!”

Indeed, a couple of big rocks had been too large for Rose to completely avoid and the slight smell of human blood reached Kanaya. It was not enough for a full injury, maybe only a couple of scratches, but it was not a good signal. However, there was something strange in Rose’s movements, Kanaya was sure that she could move faster if she wanted to.

“She is planning something,” she said, unconsciously replying to Dave’s mutterings. 

“What?” Dave asked.

“Take a good look at her, does Rose seem tired to you?” Kanaya insisted. “I tell you, she has something in mind.”

Effectively, even with the small scratches, Rose did not look to be tired at all. In fact, even from that distance, Kanaya could see her focused and determined expression. On the contrary, Sollux looked almost bored and distracted, clearly underestimating Rose. That had probably been her game from the beginning. Rose avoided the last broken statue and stopped in the air, just above Sollux. She stood motionless in the path of two of the biggest projectiles, raising her two wands for the first time.

“Rose, move!” Dave exclaimed on her side. “Fuck! She’ll get killed!”

“No, wait,” Kanaya said, grabbing Dave’s arm with her prong to stop him from doing something stupid like flying to the middle of the battle. “I believe that this is what she has been planning from the beginning.”

Just then, Rose black aura grew to double its previous size and, with a downward movement of her wands, both ruins crumbled in hundreds of smaller pieces the size of a thinkpan. The psionics intended to grab the two previous large rocks were not accurate enough to sustain all the smaller pieces, and more than half of them began falling quickly. As expected, and thanks to Rose subtly moving until she was above Sollux, a lot of those smaller rocks fell directly towards the distracted troll. When he realised his mistake, Sollux let go a surprised scream and hunched over himself instinctively, just before some rocks impacted to the ground and raised a cloud of sand that hid the troll from their view. New rocks impacting the ground caused even more explosions, making it impossible to distinguish if Sollux had been hit.

“Sollux!” Karkat screamed, clearly worried. “You underestimated her, you fucking idiot!” 

Kanaya put her free prong over Karkat’s, incapable of doing anything else than observing the battlefield. When the smell of death, electricity, and bittersweet blood reached her, she feared the worst. However, the cloud of dust quickly settled down and they could see a purple ball floating in the air, the colour caused by the mix of Sollux’s red and blue psionics. Rose was still floating some distance above it, with a satisfied smile and an arrogant posture. It was not long until the spheric shield of psionics dispersed and they could see an angry Sollux inside. He had some scratches and his shirt looked yellowish in some parts but he was mostly fine.

“Fuck!” he yelled at the top of his bellowsacs. “You tricked me!”

“You gave me the opportunity when you underestimated me!” was Rose’s reply. “Are you going to take me seriously now?!”

“Fuck you!” Sollux screamed, throwing a spark of psionics towards Rose.

The girl managed to avoid it just in time but the smell of burned clothes reached Kanaya. The human, however, simply let go a short laugh and raised her wands to counterattack.

“That’s better!” she screamed, shooting a ray of her own black magic with her wand.

From that moment on, the battle became faster, the attacks more dangerous and the stakes higher. Sollux used the ruins again but this time he threw them at a much faster velocity while Rose avoided and destroyed them in equal parts. Rose’s counterattack was much more direct, shooting black rays from her wands and forcing Sollux to use a combination of his binary psionics to shield himself again and again. Both duelists become small spots of colour in the clear sky, moving too fast to be properly distinguished, and the sand was raised in an almost permanent cloud now due attacks and rocks constantly hitting the ground. 

“Holy fuck, I can’t even follow them,” Dave said in awe. “That’s crazy!”

“I’ve never seen Sollux fighting like this,” Karkat replied with a fascinated expression on his face. “He looks almost like he’s having _fun,_ what the fuck?!”

“Yeah, Rose too,” Dave added. “I don’t get it.”

In effect, between the sound of the rocks crashing to the ground and the occasional explosion, all of them could hear the sporadic laugh or happy exclamation from both dualists. There were even some compliments being thrown both sides between attacks, like _‘Good one!’_ or _‘You almost got me there!’_. It was clear that both Rose and Sollux were having fun and were elated to have found a rival of equal ability and strength. 

“Some trolls, and I guess also humans, enjoy fighting more than others,” Kanaya shrugged. “Both Sollux and Rose seem to be like that.”

“What’s there to enjoy in fighting for your life?!” Karkat protested. “That’s stupid!”

“Yeah, I don’t get it either, dude,” Dave agreed. “Fighting has never been fun for me.”

In the air, both duelists had stopped. There were minor injuries on both of them but it was clear by their huge smiles that they did not care. The duel had somehow transformed from a competition into a friendly match.

“Not bad, Lalonde!” Sollux yelled. “Better than most trolls that had been stupid enough to challenge me!”

“Are you recognizing that we humans can be equal or better than some trolls, then?” Rose prodded with a proud smile. 

“Yeah, I totally underestimated you!” the troll finally admitted. “You are a good match, this has actually been fun!”

“You are not so bad yourself!” the human girl replied. “At least when you are really trying!”

“What can I say? I usually don’t need to focus to win a duel!” Sollux shrugged with a large smile. “Take the fact that you surprised me as the compliment it is!”

“I will!” Rose laughed. “It seems that we are at a similar level, should we call it a draw?”

Sollux looked around towards Terezi and Vriska on the ground and to where they were sitting on the frog statue as if checking that everyone was at a safe distance. Then, he turned back to Rose with a malicious smile. Kanaya had a bad feeling about it.

“You are immortal, right, Lalonde?” he asked, raising his sunglasses and putting them between his pair of horns. “I still have my strongest attack but you’ll probably die if I hit you, so I suggest you avoid it.”

“Wait a moment, Sollux!” Karkat screamed, getting up. “You can’t use your ganderbulb lasers on a human! You will kill her!”

Next to Kanaya, Dave was whispering _‘ganderbulb lasers? wait, did he mean eye lasers?’_ with a voice that was a mix of awe and terror while, on the ground, the two referees were debating among themselves.

“Shut up, KK, she can stand it!” Sollux yelled back. “I won’t use all my strength and Eridan beat me once with his stupid magic trick, so it’s not impossible!”

“Eridan?” Rose repeated with a disgusted grimace. “The troll that doubled all w and v, wrote in violet, and was a nasty flirt?”

“Yeah, he was also a snob, an hemospectrum hard-believer, and a fucking traitor,” added Sollux. “Did he troll you? Wait, wait, did he try to hate-flirt with you, too?!”

“Yes and yes,” Rose replied, faking a shiver. “I made his computer explode as a repercussion.”

“That was you?!” Sollux laughed. “You should have seen his face! It was the funniest thing to happen in the meteor! Especially when we all thought we were going to die for sure.” 

“Hey, guys!” Terezi yelled from the floor. “Are you done with your duel, then?! Should I declare it a draw?”

Even from her position, Kanaya saw Rose and Sollux interchanging a look and smiling maliciously at each other. As one, they turned back to the referee.

“Not yet!” Sollux yelled. “Just one more attack! But you should get back, Terezi! I don’t want to kill you by mistake!”

“Hey!” Vriska protested. “What about me?!”

“You are a fucking immortal and frankly I don’t care if you die!” was Sollux's quick response.

Oh dear, Sollux was really going to use his deadliest attack on Rose. Kanaya doubted for a moment about saying something or keeping her silence and respecting Rose’s decision. Which they did not really know because the human had not expressed her opinion yet. In the end, Karkat made the decision for her.

“Stop it, Sollux, I’m serious!” he yelled. “You’ll definitely kill her!”

“If someone like Eridan could stand it, I also can!” Rose declared with a determined look.

“Wtf Rose?!” Dave screamed. “It’s not the moment to be cocky! Terezi, you are supposed to stop them!”

“Oh, shut up Dave!” Terezi replied. “She says that she can handle it and I don’t see her dead in the future if she takes this decision!”

“But…” Dave kept trying to protest.

“Fine! Let’s do it your way, then!” Terezi exclaimed, raising her prongs in the air. “If it’s too dangerous for Rose to try, come back from the future and stop us!”

“I can’t do that! That’s not how time-loops work and you know it!” Dave screamed. “You are the one that taught me that!”

“Look at that! Not a single future-CoolKid in sight!” Terezi continued, completely ignoring Dave’s protests. “Everything’s fine, then! Vriska, you can protect me with your luck, right?”

“Count on it!”

“Okay guys, we are ready!” Terezi yelled at the two in the air. “Move a bit further and don’t use all your power or I will come there and kick both your asses! Also, if you die I will kill you!”

Rose and Sollux smiled and flew higher and further from each other. Karkat and Dave kept yelling at them to stop but they were too far away to hear them anymore. Not that they would have listened anyway. When the red and blue small points of light began growing, Dave almost flew up to stop them. It was only the fact that Kanaya was still holding his arm and that the Mayor climbed into the human lap to hug him that kept him on the ground. 

Dave was clearly worried sick and scared for Rose, for once not keeping up his pretence of being cool and emotionless. It almost made Kanaya feel pity for him. She heard someone gasping on her left and, when she turned to that side, she saw Karkat looking at Dave with a shocked expression on his face. Right, he had told her before that he found the human expressionless and that he doubted he could even feel anything. Now he was finally seeing what was behind Dave’s mask and he was astonished. 

Kanaya almost mocked Karkat gently for his revelation when someone yelling and a strong bicoloured light filled the desert. She looked up quickly and saw Sollux shooting a huge ray of psionics from his lookstubs, directly towards the small figure in the air. For a moment Kanaya feared that Rose was too shocked to react, but then a black ray of similar size broke out from Rose's position, impacting Sollux’s psionics directly. 

Both rays kept the other one in line momentarily, creating strong currents of hot air charged with electricity that reached them, and then there was a huge explosion growing from the point the two rays were in contact. Seeing the danger, Kanaya grabbed both Karkat and Dave, intending to fall back and hide behind the statue but she was not fast enough. The explosion reached her, making her release the others, and throwing her away until she crashed against a wall. Something impacted on her right side, breaking skin and muscle, painfully, and then everything turned dark when Kanaya lost her consciousness.

* * *

When she woke up again she knew instantly that something was wrong with her. Half her body hurt, she could smell her own blood and there was a burning sensation on her veins urging her to hunt, to kill. She tried to move but there was something stuck on her right side. She grabbed the intrusive object and pulled it out of her body without a second thought. The smell of her blood was suddenly stronger.

She got up from the ground, not caring for a single moment that there was sand sticking to her blood-covered clothes or that she was bleeding. There was nothing on her mind other than the urge to satiate her thirst. She took a step forward and something shining on the ground called her attention. She reached down to grab it and, once it was on her prong, she realised that it was a golden key. The shape of it was familiar to her but she could not remember why.

Suddenly, there was a click somewhere and the body of a huge monster appeared out of nowhere. She let the key fall and jumped to the creature with her claws and fangs ready. She sank her claws into the meat and teared it up, letting the black blood flow to the surface. She licked it, shivering at the horrible taste but enjoying the way it calmed the burning hole inside her just a bit. She bit into the white body and began drinking in earnest. 

With the taste of dark blood in her mouth, she began to remember.

_Her name was KANAYA MARYAM. She was a TROLL, in specific, a JADE GREEN BLOOD. She was also one of the few of her kind who had always been able to withstand the BLISTERING ALTERNIAN SUN, even before she died and transformed into an UNDEAD CREATURE. She liked LANDSCAPING, reading tales of RAINBOW DRINKERS and SHADOW DROPPERS and FORBIDDEN PASSION, the delicacies of FASHION and DESIGN, and the use of LIVELY COLORFUL PATTERNS to decorate her hive._

_Her lusus had been a VIRGIN MOTHER GRUB, which she had opened in half after her death to extract the MATRIORB that she was supposed to hatch into a new mother grub to ensure the TROLLS FUTURE REPRODUCTION. There was no matriorb anymore. It had been destroyed by ERIDAN AMPORA in a vicious and treacherous rampage. There was no orb, no fate, and no role awaiting her._

_She was a SEAMSTRESS, or a RAGRIPPER, or a TREETRIMMER, or a LUMBERJACK, whichever felt better at the moment. She was also one of a selected group of SURVIVING PLAYERS from a game called SGRUB that had destroyed her world, ALTERNIA, and killed everyone, including some of her friends. She was, in fact, one of the SEVEN REMAINING ALIVE TROLLS in all of PARADOX SPACE, one of them lost, and the rest on a journey to a new session that could be the only salvation for them and the only FOUR REMAINING ALIVE HUMANS, members of a species born of their failed game that had become both their SAVIORS and their FRIENDS._

_Two of those humans lived in the METEOR with them now, travelling together through paradox space and weird DREAM BUBBLES. They had recently been inside a bubble watching a DUEL between the troll SOLLUX CAPTOR and the human ROSE LALONDE. As it was a friendly match, TEREZI PYROPE was their referee with the help of VRISKA SERKET. However, they failed to stop them when they attempted a FINAL ATTACK, even when DAVE STRIDER warned them. The human had tried to fly to them, only to be stopped by herself and the little carapacian, THE MAYOR. In the end, it had been futile and the duel had ended catastrophically with a HUGE EXPLOSION that had sent her away and forced her to release her hold on KARKAT VANTAS._

_Oh! Karkat was her MOIRAIL! He was their LEADER, and he was the LOVELIEST, and MOST BIG-HEARTED, and BRAVEST of all trolls. And he was MISSING!_

_What would she do now?_

Kanaya turned around and bit the monster again.

* * *

The second time Kanaya regained consciousness, she found herself elbows deep into a dark and white mess which vaguely resembled a body. There was a horrible taste in her mouth, but she remembered feeling fire in her veins, fog in her thinksponge, and the unstoppable need to hunt and kill, so she was glad that she had bit this monster and not one of her friends. She did not think she could have stopped herself before killing them. The mere thought was terrifying.

Kanaya stepped away from the dead and almost bled-out monster on the ground, and she looked around. The scene had changed. The brown dunes of the desert she had known since her grubhood had been replaced by piles of white snowy powder. There were huge pink teapots decorated with black cats on top of the piles. The sky was yellow-orange and even the few spare clouds were yellow and soft-looking. 

Kanaya had been here before. She put a finger in one of the white piles and brought a bit of white power into her mouth. Sugar. This was clearly LOLCAT, the Land of Little Cubes and Tea, Nepeta’s planet. She looked around, trying to find her friends but there was nobody near. Numerous hills made of sugar cubes and sugar powder surrounded her, blocking her long-distance vision. As the land had changed and she had moved around in her thirst-induced feral state, Kanaya did not even know the direction she had come from.

The burning in her throat reminded Kanaya that, although she was not out of control anymore, she was still blood-thirsty. She looked at the monster again, immensely grateful for her Chastity Modus that had not allowed her to find the Auxiliatrix Key until the moment she had needed it most. Kanaya did not have any more blood stored in her sylladex but, with a bit of luck, she would be able to restrain herself until they exited the dream bubble. Once back in the meteor, she would be able to alchemize more blood, or even ask Terezi for more old blood from the bodies of their dead friends that she kept stored in her section in glass cylinders.

First thing first. She jumped to the top of the nearest sugar cube and kept jumping from cube to cube until she reached the top of the hill. Some white mountains were blocking her vision on the far-horizon, but before that she could see clearly for various kilometres. Kanaya turned around a full spin and saw nothing more than piles and piles of white, with a green river bringing a bit of colour. Here and there, spots of pink and black could be perceived among the white, but it was impossible to determine if they were simply more cat-themed teapots or a group of living trolls and humans. Her sight would not help her here. 

Kanaya contemplated her options. She could pick a direction and begin walking but there was no guarantee that it would be the correct one. Remembering her palmhusk, Kanaya checked up all of her pockets but found nothing. There was a piece of cloth missing from her right side and she vaguely remembered pulling out something from there. She touched the skin and noticed that it looked greenish, like an injury that had not completely healed. So that was why she was still thirsty. She had probably used all her energy to heal an almost deadly wound. If she was not a rainbow drinker, Kanaya would be dead by now.

She turned back to the horizon, contemplating her last option. Since becoming a rainbow drinker, Kanaya’s sense of smell had become stronger and more sensitive, in particular to the smell of blood. She usually stopped herself from inhaling through her sniff nub to better ignore the constant smell of blood under her friends’ skin, but it was harder when she was thirsty. And now her instincts were screaming for blood. If she tried, she would probably be able to detect the smallest hint of blood from kilometres away. Kanaya did not like having to use this method but she was out of options. She exhaled for the last time through her mouth, closed her lookstubs, and, on the next inhalation, she allowed herself to do it through her sniff nub.

The smell of different types of blood coming together from the same direction flooded her sniffnodes and made her dizzy. She tried to separate the odours into individuals, focusing on each of them. She recognized the smell of sunshine and paper typical of Rose’s blood, the bittersweetness of Sollux’s and the smell of oil that she had long associated with the black carapacian. A new sniff, though, brought a new scent that had her frozen up on her spot. Empathy, warm wool and the sweetest blood of them all. Karkat’s blood. She could smell her moirail’s blood and that could only mean one thing: Karkat was hurt.

Before she realised it, she was already jumping from pile to pile and running once on the ground towards the origin of that smell. The only thing in her sponge was that Karkat was hurt and she was not there to help him. What if he had been as badly hurt as her? Her moirail did not have the advantages of rainbow drinkers’ fast regeneration or the sturdiness of highbloods. He could be dying, he could be already dead. Kanaya had to find him! There was no time to waste! She needed to be faster! Faster, FASTER!

The smell of Karkat’s blood grew stronger with each step until Kanaya reached the top of the last hill and could finally see him. He was alive! Someone released a pitiful scream, like a wounded creature, and it took her a moment to realise that it had come from her. The small group a few hundred meters in front of Kanaya turned to look at her and, even from so far, she knew that her moirail was smiling at her. He began walking towards her when someone grabbed his arm to pull him back and Karkat let go a small grunt of pain.

In a blink, Kanaya had jumped off the hill and was running towards Karkat, faster than she had ever been. A silhouette stepped into her path with a sword drawn and Kanaya took an extra second to step aside and kick them away. There were screams around her and someone else tried to reach for her but she was already on the move. Before anyone else could stop her, she reached Karkat, grabbed him up and kept running until they were far away from the ones threatening her or hurting her moirail. Only when they were at a safe distance, at least a kilometre away, she stopped and put Karkat down.

“Kanaya?” she heard Karkat’s familiar voice say, something inside of her calming just by hearing him. “Are you okay? Fuck, you are all covered in blood!”

Kanaya’s prongs began touching Karkat’s exposed skin gently, looking for the injury or scratch that was the source of Karkat’s sweet-smelling blood.

“Naya?” Karkat asked again, his prongs already finding her hurt side. “What are you doing?”

“You are hurt,” Kanaya replied with a raw and dry voice that she would have never associated with hers. “I could smell your blood from kilometres away. And I heard your pain before, when one of them pulled you away.”

“ _Them_?” her moirail whispered, his prongs now checking her body for other injuries.

“The ones who hurt you,” she explained, finally localizing the source of the smell coming from Karkat’s left arm, hid under the sleeve of his sweater. “The ones who attacked me.”

“You mean _our friends_?” Karkat insisted, grabbing Kanaya’s pan between his prongs and forcing her to look at him directly. “Look at me, Kanaya! You probably don’t know how you looked on that hill, all feral glance nuggets and completely covered in blood. Our friends got scared and were just trying to protect me,” he explained. “Which is stupid because you are my moirail and would never hurt me, right Naya?”

Oh. Kanaya stopped, really stopped, for the first time since she began running after Karkat’s scent from so far away, and looked at herself. Her ruined clothes were soaked with black and jade green blood, a huge part of her dress was missing on her right, exposing skin that was still healing, and she had somehow lost a shoe without even noticing.

“I look horrible,” she complained before a new sniff brought back the smell of Karkat’s blood and she remembered what she was doing before this distraction. She grabbed Karkat’s left wrist gently and began pulling up the sleeve of his sweater.

“Yeah, you are a mess, but you are alive so I don’t fucking care!” Karkat said, smiling at her and not complaining even once about being trollhandled. “I fucking thought you were dead, Kanaya! You threw us out of the way of the explosion but you were hit directly and crashed into a wall! I saw a piece of rock impaling you! And then the fucking landscape changed and somehow you and the wall were not where I had last seen you!”

“Space in the dream bubbles is not constant,” Kanaya suddenly remembered. “It must have been altered when the environment changed. Or it affected me differently because I am a Space player.”

“I don’t fucking care!” Karkat yelled. “One moment you were there, bleeding out with a huge rock stabbing your side and the next you were gone!” there were tears in Karkat’s lookstubs now. “You didn’t answer your Trollian and we didn’t have a fucking clue of where you had gone!” he explained. “We were searching for hours and, when I was beginning to lose hope, suddenly there you were on top of the hill! Soaked in blood, with your glance nuggets glowing, your skin shining, your claws full of dark blood and smiling directly at me!” Karkat said, smiling again. “You were gorgeous back there! And then you came for me faster than even Strider could ever dream of and took us both away! I have never seen anything move that fast, Kanaya, it was amazing!”

Karkat’s face made a painful grimace when the sleeve rubbed his injury so Kanaya decided to change tactics. She pulled the sleeve back down, a prong pulling to keep it tense, and she used a claw to make a small tear at the end of it. Then, it was just a matter of taking both sides of the new torn sleeve and pulling to tear it completely, exposing Karkat’s long-sleeved shirt. There was a large cut on the textile near his elbow, surrounded by a red stain.

“Oi! That was my favourite sweater!” Karkat protested, surprised.

“I will make you ten more,” Kanaya replied absently, her lookstubs focused on the red stain on Karkat’s shirt.

“Kanaya?” she heard her moirail ask. “Are you alright?”

Kanaya did not answer. Instead of that, she brought him closer by pulling at his wrist and she bent down until her sniff nub was almost touching Karkat’s blood-stained clothes. The smell of empathy, wool and sweetness was stronger than ever and Kanaya almost felt dizzy with it. A loud rumble began growing in her chest and the need to taste that sweet, sweet blood was almost overwhelming.

“What the fuck?!” Karkat whispered before raising his voice on his next question. “Are you actually purring, Kanaya?!”

Was she? Kanaya blinked and realised that the smell of Karkat’s blood was causing her to purr happily. Oh. Well, that was a bit embarrassing. Only a bit because most of Kanaya’s sponge was focused on the pleasure Karkat’s smell was giving her and the growing urge to taste his blood. There was not enough space in her sponge for anything else, even embarrassment. Tentatively, she stuck out her tongue and licked the tainted shirt. Even the taste of dirty, sweaty fabric was not enough to hide the sweetness of Karkat’s blood. Kanaya groaned.

“Kanaya, stop!” Karkat screamed suddenly, pushing her away and releasing his arm from her hold.

Kanaya found herself a few steps away from Karkat, who was holding his arm against his chest while looking at her with fear and confusion. Oh. Oh no. What had she done?!

“Karkat, I’m sorry,” she tried to apologize but Karkat quickly interrupted her.

“What the fuck was that, Kanaya?!” he screamed again. “I thought you were checking my injury, which was really nice of you, not trying to… to… get a taste of me! I’m not fucking food, Kanaya!”

No. No, no, no, no! Karkat was scared of her now, her moirail was scared of her! How had this happened? Kanaya was not trying to bite him, or at least she did not think she was. Oh, who was she trying to deceive?! She might not have actively been thinking about biting Karkat but it was clear that if she had kept letting her instincts take over her like that, she would have ended biting him! She did not want to hurt him, never, but the instinct was too strong. Even now the simple memory of the sweet blood was tempting her. Kanaya hugged herself tightly, trying to stop the shivers.

“Kanaya?”

“You should get away from me, Karkat,” she said in a low voice. “I don’t know how long I can contain the thirst and I do not want to hurt you.”

“Oh. OH!” Karkat exclaimed.

Kanaya closed her lookstubs and tried to remember if she had hurt anyone else already in her almost-feral state. She looked back at her clothes, completely stained with black and jade blood. It was not a surprise that her friends had been afraid of her and had tried to stop her when they first saw her. Oh, gods! She had kicked someone aside! Judging by the strong memory of moonlight, dice, and freezing sour blood, it had been Vriska. She had not even realised it was her when she kicked her away. She hoped she was alright. She stepped further away from Karkat.

“Kanaya, I need you to tell me what happened to you after the explosion,” her moirail said then. “Please.”

She doubted for a moment, afraid of looking up at Karkat just to see the same fear as before. In the end, she kept her lookstubs focused on the white ground while she began explaining.

“I do not remember pushing you away before the explosion or how I got where I was, only being in pain,” Kanaya tried to explain, beginning to wonder if she had done more than what she suspected during the gaps in her memory. “After that, the first thing I remember is waking up soaked in black blood and with my fangs sunk in the monster from the Common Block.”

“The one in the big glass container that Sollux broke a week ago?” he asked, confused. “I thought Vriska had killed it for grist.”

“It was already dead even when he was inside the glass, so I captchalogued it into my sylladex,” Kanaya explained. “I wanted to see if I could drink its blood but I did not manage to find the Auxiliatrix Key anywhere. Or, at least, until tonight.”

Karkat had gone silent and a quick check-up told Kanaya that he was thinking about something. It was written all across his face.

“Why did you need a monster’s blood, Kanaya? Before tonight, I mean,” he asked. “Didn’t you tell me that you were using alchemised blood and that you had the situation under control?”

Right, Kanaya had said that. It had been at the beginning of their moirallegiance, when the alchemised blood was still working to calm her thirst. Karkat had asked her about her needs as a rainbow drinker, probably trying to offer his own blood, but Kanaya had shot down that suggestion before it was even done. She knew how much Karkat hated the sight of his red blood. For that reason, even when she had been tempted, she refused to let him make the offer and told Karkat that the situation was under control. It had not been a lie. She simply conveniently forgot to say anything to her moirail when the old alchemised blood ceased to be enough. 

“I had it under control then, I promise,” she insisted. “But, after some time, the alchemised blood gradually became less and less effective in satiating my thirst. I do not know why.”

Karkat sighed and looked at her with one of his frustrated but fond expressions that always made Kanaya feel as if she had disappointed him. Then, he put one of his claws into the tear in his own shirt and tore it out completely, exposing a shallow but still bloody cut. Finally, he raised his arm and exposed it to Kanaya’s lookstubs.

“If you had told me before that you were having problems, Kanaya, I would have offered my blood sooner. You already knew that, right?” he asked with an exasperated voice. “Why are you always doing these things to yourself?”

Kanaya's body began shivering stronger and she could not stop looking at the red line on Karkat’s grey skin. The temptation was horrible but she was still scared of losing control.

“I do not want to hurt you, Karkat,” she said.

“You won’t,” was Karkat’s sure reply, before adding with a commanding, deeper voice. “ **Come here, Naya.** ” 

Kanaya was walking towards Karkat before she was even conscious of it, her thinksponge covered by a strange fog that made it hard to resist that command. Soon, though, it disappeared and was replaced by the familiar urge to drink. She raised a prong and grabbed Karkat’s wrist again, gently caressing his skin, her lookstubs still focused on the red line near his elbow.

“What if I lose control again?” she insisted, trying her best to resist the temptation. “I really do not want to hurt you, love.”

Karkat sighed and was about to say something else when someone appeared a few meters away from them. Kanaya’s pan turned to that direction, surprised, and she saw Dave, breathless, red on his face, and with his hair a mess. There was a sword on his prong and determination in his lookstubs. He looked at Kanaya, who was still holding Karkat’s wrist, then at the blood in Karkat’s exposed arm, and back at Kanaya with fire in his lookstubs.

“Let him go!” he screamed before launching himself towards Kanaya, sword raised.

Kanaya had just the time to push Karkat away and jump away before Dave’s sword cut the air where she had been moments before.

“No! Stop, Strider!” she heard Karkat yell, somewhere to her right.

Dave did not waste any time in attacking her again and Kanaya was forced to keep avoiding him. The human was fast but Kanaya knew she could be faster if she let her instincts take over. The problem was that she did not really want to hurt Dave and she was afraid of what could happen if she went feral again. For this reason, she did not even decaptchalogued her weapon and focused just on avoiding his attacks. It worked well enough until she found herself unexpectedly against a huge sugar cube, Dave’s attack too fast to avoid it this time.

Suddenly, Karkat appeared out of nowhere and there was the sound of metal against metal when his sickle stopped Dave’s sword. Then, Karkat managed to pierce Dave’s clothes with his other sickle and turned around, using both of them to throw the human to the ground. Fast as lightning, before Dave could recover, the troll kicked away his sword and put a strut pod on the human’s chest, the tip of a sickle dangerously close to Dave’s neck.

“I told you to stop, Strider!” he screamed from his higher position. “Kanaya was not attacking me, you dumbass!”

Dave’s sunglasses had fallen away at some point, revealing surprised red iris that looked up at Karkat as if he was seeing him for the first time. Red lookstubs. The same colour that Karkat’s would be after his second mold, the colour of his mutant blood. Kanaya saw the moment Karkat realised that fact, too, because he dropped the arm with the sickle threatening the human’s neck. The troll simply stood there, looking at Dave with the same amazed expression that was being reflected in the human’s face. Oh, how interesting.

Kanaya coughed loudly and turned away to hide her smile when both boys rushed to put some distance between them. She saw something black on the ground and bent down to pick up Dave’s sunglasses. She walked towards where the human was still sitting on the ground and offered the glasses back to him with a tentative smile. Dave looked suspiciously at her for a moment before turning to look at Karkat and finally looking back at her again with a more calmed expression. He must have realised that Kanaya was not attacking anyone, because he accepted his sunglasses with a shy thanks.

“I am sorry for the misunderstanding,” Kanaya said to the human. “I realise how that situation could have been interpreted from an outside perspective, especially after my previous uncontrolled behaviour,” she said with an ashamed smile. “I apologize.”

The human looked up at Kanaya for a few seconds with his mouth open, clearly surprised by her words, before rushing to offer his own apologies.

“No, no, nothing of that! It was my fault, I totally misunderstood the situation!” he said, gesticulating with his prongs. “Also, thanks for going easy on me, I guess? Because, holy fuck, you are so much faster than me!” Dave exclaimed with awe. “I’ve never flash stepped consecutively so many times before, and even with that, it took me at least ten minutes to catch up! And I only managed to do it because you stopped!” 

“I did not go easy on you intentionally,” Kanaya explained. “I was just scared of hurting you by accident.”

“Okay, that’s weird and really nice of you,” the human smiled slightly at her with a strange, confused expression on his face. “Thanks, I guess.”

“Yeah, yeah, we are all sappy friends now, blablabla,” Karkat interrupted. “Can I put my weapons away now or will you attack my moirail again?”

“Oh, right,” Dave turned back to Karkat, his facial expression becoming blank again. “I’m cool, dude, it was a mistake. Nice movements back there, btw! I didn’t know you were ambidextrous!”

Karkat was clearly surprised by Dave’s sudden friendly and even praising tone. He looked back at his sickles, as if he had never considered his ability as anything else than ordinary, and shrugged. He turned them around fast in his prongs with quick moments of his wrist, clearly showing off his skill now. Kanaya smiled, proud of him.

“I’m not ambidextrous, not with other things like writing and stuff like that,” Karkat said, throwing his sickles spinning into the air and catching them again, easy as breathing. “It’s only that I wanted to be a Threshsecutioner when I was a wiggler, so I trained hard. It was a stupid dream though, I’d have probably been culled instantaneously if I tried to get into the military,” he shrugged again and finally captchalogued his sickles. 

“It’s still cool, though, I didn’t know you were so good,” Dave insisted, retrieving his sword from the ground. “You’re crazy strong, dude.”

“Whatever,” Karkat brushed Dave’s comments off, a bit of red visible on the dark skin of his cheeks. “What the fuck are you doing here, anyway?”

“Oh, the others are coming too, I’m just the fastest,” the human commented. “Though I’m completely beaten out, that was a crazy race!”

“That doesn’t answer my question, Strider!” Karkat insisted.

“Well, Kanaya didn’t look exactly sane back there and she spirited you away without even a thank you, so we kind of thought that she was eating you as a snack,” Dave explained. “Btw, I should tell the others that you are fine, we don’t want anyone misjudging the situation here.”

“Who would be that stupid?” asked Karkat, sarcastically.

“Is everyone okay?” Kanaya asked anxiously. “I think I kicked Vriska away at some point, but I am not really sure how hard I was.”

“She’s fine, just pissed off, as usual. Everyone else got only a few scratches and bumps from the explosion, I think you were the only one that was seriously hurt, Kanaya,” Dave said while decaptchaloging his palmhusk. “I’m going to tell them that both of you are fine. Rose was really worried about you, I think she felt guilty. You know, for not listening to me and almost killing us all.”

Kanaya breathed easier at hearing that. She had been really worried that someone else had gotten hurt in the incident, or that Kanaya had attacked someone without realising it in her half-feral state. She would have to apologize to Vriska and assure Rose that she did not blame her for what had happened. There was no way to know beforehand that Rose’s magic and Sollux’s lookstub lasers would explode like that when in direct contact.

“Kanaya,” Karkat called her, pulling on her arm and guiding her a bit away from Dave. “You should drink a bit of blood before the others get here and mess things again.”

“But…” she tried to protest.

“No buts!” her moirail cut her off. “Don’t worry, we will have a large discussion about this and about you hiding things from me again, once we are back on the meteor,” he warned her with a serious look. “But for now, you need blood, and I’m offering. It’s as simple as that.”

Kanaya’s lookstubs went back to Karkat’s exposed arm automatically. Her thirst had not disappeared in all this time, but she had been distracted with Dave attacking her and their conversation and she had almost forgotten it. Almost.

“I am afraid to lose control, Karkat,” she confessed, trying to make him see that his suggestion was a bad idea. “And what about Dave?” she insisted, trying to distract both of them and postpone Karkat’s offer. “He will misinterpret the situation again.”

Karkat looked at her with a pensive face for a moment before apparently coming to a decision, judging by his determined expression. He turned back to where the human was still sitting on the ground, taping at his palmhusk.

“Oi, Strider!” he called to him. “I’m going to let Kanaya drink my blood now! It’s my idea so don’t go and stupidly attack her again!”

“Karkat!” Kanaya complained, embarrassed.

“Wtf are you talking about?” Dave replied, looking at them with a confused expression. “Why would she want to drink your blood? That’s nasty!”

“Oh, for fuck sake! Tell me you are not that stupid!” Karkat yelled, exasperated. “Have you really not realized yet that Kanaya is a rainbow drinker?! She needs to drink blood regularly or she will go feral, which I guess is what almost happened back there.”

“Wait, what the fuck is a _‘rainbow drinker’_?” the human repeated in a crude imitation of Karkat’s deeper voice.

“I believe that in your culture it was called being a _‘vampire’_ ,” Kanaya decided to contribute. “There are some differences but the thirst for blood is present in both mythical creatures.”

Dave looked at them with a shocked expression, open mouth included, and Kanaya had to restrain herself from making a panicked giggle. She almost prepared herself for a second attack when the human got up from the ground and looked at her nervously.

“A vampire?! For real?!” he exclaimed. “A troll vampire?!! I thought it was only a joke!”

“Yes, Dave, call it a troll vampire if it’s easier for your slow sponge to understand the concept,” Karkat said with a condescending tone. “Now, will you control yourself and not attack my moirail while she is eating?”

“Actually, there is something I would like to ask you, Dave,” Kanaya said, an idea just popping into her pan. “Could you supervise me and stop me if I lose control? I really do not want to hurt Karkat, at least not more than strictly necessary.”

“Wait, what do you want me to do to stop you?! Pull you away from him or something like that?” Dave asked, astonished. “I don’t know, it’s a bit weird.”

“Yeah, Kanaya, what the fuck?!” Karkat agreed.

“Please, Karkat, it would ease my fear if I knew there was someone else watching over you,” Kanaya insisted before turning to Dave. “I understand that it is a strange petition but I would be really thankful if you could help me, Dave. I have been too afraid to drink fresh blood until now, but I realise that the alternative is even worse. I do not want to lose control again.”

Kanaya still remembered herself drinking off her friends, both dead and alive, when she first awoke as a rainbow drinker. She had not realised what she was doing until she had already fed on three different trolls. She remembered following the scent of Sollux blood to the ectobiology lab, part of her hoping that her friend would be dead so she would have someone else to drink from without feeling bad about it. Kanaya did not want to feel like that ever again.

Dave was clearly doubting about what to do but, in the end, he seemed to reach a conclusion because he squared back his shoulders, his expression turned cold as ice and he picked up his sword. Kanaya was worried for a moment that the human would attack her again but he just walked towards them calmly and stood there, waiting.

“Okay, I will do it,” he said. “The moment that Karkat says _‘stop’_ or he begins to look sick I will stop you, Kanaya, even if I have to knock you out.”

A huge feeling of relief flooded Kanaya and she smiled at the human, gratefully. Then, she looked around and localised a small pile of sugary powder near them. It would be easier for everyone if they sat down. She gestured towards it and both her and Karkat sat on it, face to face. Dave stood near them, sword ready. 

“Okay, we are doing this,” Karkat said, showing the first signs of nervousness.

“We are making this happen, bro,” Dave added with a huge smile.

Kanaya did not understand the reference but Karkat clearly did because he rolled back his lookstubs and swore in a low voice, not nervous anymore. The troll raised his left arm again and exposed his swallow injury. Kanaya grabbed his arm gently and, after a last quick check with both Dave and Karkat, she used a claw to open the recently closed cut.

Bright red blood spelt out of Karkat’s grey skin and Kanaya bent forwards to lick every drop of it. The hot blood tasted sweet and brought her memories of warm cloth and Karkat looking at her with lookstubs full of pity and pale adoration. It was not long before she felt her chest rumbling again, a happy purr sounding loud even to her ears. When the blood stopped, Kanaya used her claws to pinch Karkat’s skin, allowing the cut to be opened a bit further and making the flow begin again. She licked and sucked while the burning inside her gradually diminished until it was just a tolerable ache. Just then, she felt someone touching her shoulder.

“That’s enough Kanaya, let him go,” she heard a voice tell her in a gentle but demanding tone.

For a moment, she was tempted to keep going, of fattening herself with that sweet, sweet blood, but she opened her lookstubs and saw Karkat’s sleepy face. Looking at his face made her remember who she was drinking from and she let go of him so fast that the cut on his arm opened again, blood spilling out. Panicking, she licked over the injury again, trying to push the vital fluid back into Karkat’s body. 

The prong on her shoulder pulled her back gently and a red cloth was pressed against Karkat’s arm. Kanaya quickly added pressure to it, finally remembering her most basic first-aid knowledge. When an additional pair of pale hands appeared into her field of vision, securing the large cloth around Karkat’s arm, Kanaya finally remembered Dave. She looked to the side and saw the human on his knees with a worried expression on his face.

“Thanks for stopping me,” Kanaya said. “For a moment, I even forgot it was Karkat.”

“You let him go quickly enough when you remembered, though, maybe even too fast,” the human said, finally making a knot on the side of Karkat’s arm. “It’s okay, Kanaya, I understand it better now. It wasn’t your fault, nobody realised how bad your situation was,” Dave smiled shyly at her. “We’ll fix this, we’ll help you find a better way.”

Kanaya felt an intense relief at hearing him saying that. She turned back to Karkat. He was resting on the sugary pile with his lookstubs closed and a peaceful expression on his face. He was too quiet.

“Is he…?” Kanaya tried to ask but found her voice failing her.

“He is okay, only sleeping, I think,” Dave answered, raising his prong to press a finger to the side of Karkat’s neck. “Wow, didn’t know you guys had such hard skin. How do you check someone’s pulse?”

“Why would we want to do that?” Kanaya asked, confused.

“Duh. Maybe to check that someone else is still alive?” the human replied but kept talking after looking at Kanaya’s face, probably seeing her confusion. “Right, trolls. I guess you won’t be walking around worrying about others' well-being when you are too busy killing each other,” he moved his prong to Karkat’s face and he held it in front of the troll’s open mouth. “Yep, he is breathing, just sleeping then.”

With that, he sat back on his heels and checked the cloth around Karkat’s arm again before nodding and finally sitting back on the ground. Kanaya focused on the red cloth, noticed the disappearance of Dave’s cape and put two and two together. It was not the first time the human had used his cape to bandage one of Karkat’s injuries, after all.

“Why are you always using your cape as bandages?” she voiced out, curious. “How many of them have you ruined already?”

“What else are magic capes for?” Dave shrugged. “Also, I can make a new one appear at any moment.”

And with that, he snapped his fingers and a new cape appeared over Dave’s shoulders, it’s hood covering his white hair. He pushed off the hood and ran a prong through his messy hair.

“Gosh, I hate the hood,” the human complained. “Anyway, it’s actually handy for things like this and we need bandages constantly with this group, we are always fucking something up or getting attacked by crazy trolls,” Dave shrugged. “How are you, btw? You look better.”

Kanaya took a moment to reflect on her answer. She noticed that the skin on her right side did not look greenish anymore and the burning in her veins had almost disappeared too, reduced to barely an ache. She had not felt this good in perigees, probably since before she became a rainbow drinker. Kanaya looked back at Karkat, feeling immensely grateful and humbled by her moirail generosity.

“I feel better,” she confirmed. “Maybe a bit tired. It has been a long day.”

“Go ahead, take a nap,” Dave suggested while decaptchaloguing his palmhusk again. “I will let the others know where we are.”

“Yes, I think I will rest for a bit,” Kanaya conceded. “Thank you, Dave, for everything.”

“Oh, shut up already,” the human protested half-heartedly with a bit of red colouring his cheeks.

Kanaya smiled at the boy’s embarrassment but she did not say anything else. She climbed back on the sugary pile, next to Karkat, and pulled her moirail closer to her until she could put an arm under him and hug him tight. The smell of Karkat’s blood was still in the air but for once it calmed her instead of making her thirsty. She thought it would be some time before she felt thirsty again.

“Kanaya?” she heard Dave call her and she forced her lookstubs to open.

“Yes, Dave?” Kanaya asked.

“I know you trolls are weird about these things, and please don’t tell Karkat because he would mock me for months,” he began saying at a fast speed. “But, I consider you my friend, all of you I mean,” he added quickly. “Well, not the murdering clown troll, of course, and I have my doubts about Serket, too. But you, Karkat, Terezi, and even the weirdo of Sollux. You’re all fucking crazy and have stupid troll rules, but you’re all cool and funny, and I consider you all my friends,” he ended in a rush. “I just wanted you to know.”

Kanaya smiled at Dave’s honesty. The humans’ selflessness, goodness and generosity never ceased to surprise her. She actually found their predisposition to help others quite refreshing and it made her wish trolls could learn to be a bit like that. It also made it harder to not get attached to these humans.

“Thank you, Dave, I appreciate it,” she replied. “I also consider you my friend and I am very grateful for all the goodness you have shown me and Karkat. I know he appreciates it, too, even if he would never recognize it.”

“Oh, okay, thanks, I guess.” the human replied, averting his lookstubs and scratching the back of his neck. “Can you keep this conversation between us?”

“Your secret is safe with me,” Kanaya assured him. “Now, I am going to sleep, if it is okay with you. I am really tired.”

“Sure, nap away! I’ll watch over you, guys!” Dave said with the biggest and more honest smile that Kanaya had ever seen on his face.

Kanaya smiled back at the human, her _friend_ , and cuddled back with her moirail. She inhaled the sweet smell of Karkat’s blood and fell asleep almost immediately.


	11. Pale 8liss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Thanks for reading so far, and especial thanks to my beta!  
> In this chapter there is a part inspired by one of Unda's great stories (those that had read it would know which part). If you have not yet read their stories, I recommend them. All of them. I'm not trying to copy their work in any way, it's just great inspiration.  
> Enjoy the chapter!

“I can’t believe you made me come all the way to your section only for this bullshit!” the troll protested. “What am I saying?! Of course I believe it! You would absolutely do something like that just to piss me off!” he kept rambling. “I’m onto you, Serket! I have you completely figured out!”

Vriska rolled her eyes and tried to ignore the whiny complaints of her companion. She tried. Seriously. Well, honestly? Not really. But, who could blame her?

“Congratulations for your imaginary and irrelevant accomplishment in your fantasy world,” Vriska replied with her best mocking tone. “Meanwhile, in the real world, the true hero is breaking her back night and day, working non-stop in an infallible plan to kill the villain of the story,” she added, with a grandeur bow. “You are most welcome.”

Next to her, Karkat let go a sarcastic laugh.

“You, a hero?” he laughed. “You have never done anything heroic in all your life! Admit it, you are NOT the hero of this or any story!”

“Shut up, Karkles!” Vriska ordered, offended. “I’m the only troll that had the abdominal sausages to ascend to God Tier! And I’m the one doing all the planning and strategizing to ensure we’ll win this time!”

“Being killed by Aradiabot is not an accomplishment, fuckass!” Karkat replied. “If anything, it was cold vengeance. You know, for killing her sweeps ago for no good reason! And especially for mind-controlling her fucking moirail into doing your dirty work!”

“Why is everyone still bringing that up?!” she protested. “As you just said, it was sweeps ago, and I already apologized to Megido! She never cared in the first place and she also killed me in the game!” Vriska insisted. “If anything, me killing her made sure she would eventually ascend to God Tier. Thanks to me, she is now alive, immortal, and happy visiting the dream bubbles!”

Vriska expected Karkat to reply but, instead, he was quiet for a few moments. She raised her eyes from the notebook where she had been writing and looked at the other troll, who was standing near her. He had his eyes closed and was pinching the base of his nose with an angry expression on his face. What was his problem now?

“What?!” she exclaimed.

“I’m trying to repress the urge to knock you out,” Karkat muttered, angrily.

“As if you could!” Vriska laughed.

She made sure to keep smiling with superiority while she considered her odds, her body tense in preparation for a possible attack. Vriska wasn’t scared of Karkat. The troll boy wasn’t the type to attack others in a rage and, even if he tried, Vriska had all the advantage here with being a highblood and a God Tier. And all that was without considering her ability to steal his luck. No, Karkat would never surpass her one-on-one, but there was something else that worried her.

How would the others react if she hurt or even killed Karkat by accident?

Well, to begin with, Kanaya would be furious that she had hurt her moirail, even if it was in self-defence. And Kanaya was terrifying. She already scared Vriska before becoming a rainbow drinker, but now? Now she was mad-fucking scary. Vriska remembered clearly the jade-blooded girl kicking her away in the last dream bubble. It had been too fast to even see it coming and it really hurt. Really, really hurt. Surviving Kanaya’s vengeance would require all of her luck-stealing abilities.

Then, there was the piss-blood. Captor would definitely be pissed off if she killed his pitch crush, and he already disliked her. Truthfully, he had reasons for that, and Vriska was actually surprised that he never tried to kill her in vengeance. It was quite disappointing. However, Vriska was pretty sure she could mind-control him if needed. In normal conditions, she would only be able to do it half of the time, but she was pretty sure she could increase her odds using her newfound luck. 

After that, there were the humans. They didn’t seem to be particularly attached to Karkat, but humans were fastidious with murder. That could be a problem. She had yet to see Strider in action, but Lalonde was clearly strong and bloodthirsty when she needed to be. Vriska could put both of them to sleep but it would not take for long, and it was difficult to mind-control more than one individual simultaneously. Also, Strider had time powers and he could come back to the past the moment he woke up, making her efforts meaningless. She still remembered the large army of future and past Aradiabots that helped them during their battle with the Black King. Yeah, bad idea.

Finally, Terezi would kill her for sure this time if Vriska killed Karkat. She was not sure what was going on between them lately, but, regardless of their mutual avoiding act, Vriska knew that Terezi considered Vantas her friend. She would be so disappointed if Vriska were to kill him, even if it was by mistake. Maybe Terezi would even blame herself for it somehow, she had had that tendency lately. That would not do it.

So, yeah, killing Karkat even as self-defence would be a very bad idea. 

“Why am I still surprised by the collective stupidness in this meteor?” Karkat was rambling at that moment, probably having done so for the last minute while Vriska had ignored him. “Anyone would assume that, at this point, I would be used to it but no! I’m still finding myself surprised by the low level of intelligence in the majority of survivors from not only one but two entire universes!” he yelled. “Thank fuck that at least my moirail is a coherent, rational, intelligent troll!”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say Krabkat,” Vriska replied. “Were you trying to get a point across or do you just love the sound of your own voice?”

“Of course I have a point!” Karkat yelled with a murderous gaze. “My fucking point is that you keep rambling about how Aradia didn’t care that you killed her, how she made things even when she killed you and now you are even, etc. However, you are completely, utter-fuckingly wrong,” he explained. “First of all, insinuating that you did her a favour when killing her is just wrong, so stop it. And second, maybe Aradia didn’t really care, fuck if I know what goes inside her empty pan, but, in any case, she isn’t the only one who has to forgive you.”

What?! 

“What?!” Vriska complained, for once not able to keep her mental questions inside her sponge. “What do you mean with that?! That’s a lie! I killed Aradia, apologized to her, died, and now we are even!” she insisted. “I paid for what I did to her when she killed me! We are alright now!”

“As I said, it’s not Aradia who you should apologize to,” Karkat repeated. “The fact that you have no fucking idea of whom I’m talking about only proves my point.”

“What point?! There is no point! You are just talking shit and messing with me!” Vriska growled, getting angry. “If you are trying to get me to apologize to everyone for shit that doesn’t involve them, you are a sick bastard! And stupid because I won’t! As I said: I already paid for my past mistakes!”

Karkat raised one of his eyebrows and sent her a venomous look. Vriska immediately suspected what he was going to say next.

“You mean like murdering Tavros?” he said in a serious tone. “Or are you going to argue that it was NOT a mistake?!”

Ouch, punched directly on the open wound. He was right, though. Killing Tavros had definitely been a mistake and Vriska still felt bad about it. Even if she didn’t understand why or had any idea of how she could fix it. It was not as if she could bring Tavros back to life, right?

“I recognise that killing Tavros was an error. I feel bad about it, ok? Even if I shouldn’t and I don’t get why I do,” Vriska confessed. “I’m working on making it up for him somehow. That’s what I do, I fix things. And that’s how I know that the incident with Megido is settled.”

Karkat seemed surprised to hear her say that, even Vriska was astonished that she had confessed aloud something so private. And to Vantas of all trolls! Fuck, what was with the nubhorn that made everyone confess shit to him?!

“Wow, just wow,” he said, making the situation even more embarrassing than it already was. “I didn’t expect that.”

“Forget I ever said anything,” Vriska growled, feeling her face getting colder in her embarrassment. “If you ever mention it to anyone, I will fucking dismember you!”

“Oh no, I’m so scared of that empty threat that I will piss myself on my pants,” Karkat mocked, rolling back his eyes. “Seriously, though, I didn’t know you were actually making an effort. That’s good, I guess. Even if you are completely stupid for not seeing the obvious reason that made you lash out at Tavros in that way.“

“Shut up Vantas!” she growled.

Gratuitous insults aside, Vantas had sounded sincere and not pissed off with Vriska for once. She squinted suspiciously at him for a moment, but the short-horned troll seemed lost in his thoughts. Vriska looked at her notes and tried to focus on what she wrote again 

PLAYERS P8WERS

VRISKA SERKET → THIEF OF LIGHT

TEREZI PYROPE → SEER OF MIND

KANAYA MARYAM → SYLPH OF SPACE

SOLLUX CAPTOR → MAGE OF DOOM

ROSE LALONDE → SEER OF LIGHT

DAVE STRIDER → KNIGHT OF TIME

KARKAT VANTAS → KNIGHT OF ?

GAMZEE MAKARA → 8ARD OF RAGE

Right, she had asked Karkat over to her section because she didn’t remember his Aspect. It wasn’t as if he had shown any special abilities in the past, and Terezi was avoiding talking about anything regarding the short troll, so Vriska couldn’t ask her. 

“You’re not the only one that regrets their past mistakes,” she heard Karkat say. “But, I’m not talking to you about this shit. Talk with your moirail about your repressed-as-fuck feelings and not me, for fuck sake!”

“Oh, go pail yourself!” Vriska replied, angry and ashamed. “You know very well that I don’t have a fucking moirail! You are the one that stole Kanaya from me! Not like I need a moirail anyway!”

Vriska was still pissed off about it. It was not that she missed Kanaya because they were still friends and their relationship had not changed that much. It was simply the idea that Vantas had something that used to be hers. However, Kanaya still talked to her sometimes, even if a bit colder and more polite than she had ever been. The only difference was that now Vriska couldn’t pester her about her stupid problems. Not like she had any problems. She was completely fine. 

“I did not and you were a horrible moirail to Kanaya, I still haven’t forgiven you for that!” Karkat growled back. “Do you have any idea of how much difficult you made my job as his moirail? You really messed her up and I’m not forgetting that soon!” he insisted. “I’m not complaining, though, Kanaya is the best of us all.”

“Spare me your stupid pale fantasies, I really don’t want to know,” she rolled back her eyes. “By the way, nice of you to mention a moirail I don’t have anymore.”

“I was not talking about your EX-moirail, I was talking about your current one!” the short troll insisted.

“What are you talking about?!” Vriska asked, confused. “I don’t have a moirail!”

Karkat was looking at her with a weird face. Pan to the side, eyes half-closed and mouth closed tight. Almost as if he were trying to read her mind. It was soooooooo annoying.

“No way,” he whispered. “Please, tell me you are not that stupid!”

“Oi!”

“But, why am I still getting surprised by your level of stupidity?” he continued talking, completely ignoring her. “It’s clear that I keep expecting too much of everyone and getting disappointed when they show their mental-deficient capacities. I should know better by now.”

“If you are done with your incoherent rambling, can we go back to discussing your Aspect?” Vriska asked, not really expecting an answer. “You know, the reason I forced myself to ask you to come to my section alone?!”

“I shouldn’t interfere but, knowing both of you, you will spend the next sweep circling around this topic without ever getting anywhere,” Karkat kept saying. “And it will be awkward as fuck for the rest of us to watch, so I’m going to meddle just this once. Consider this a sporadic and nonrepetitive ashen moment.”

“Urgh,” she growled, closing her eyes and covering her ears. “Stop talking!”

“Do you really think that you can avoid my voice?” Karkat laughed. “HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN HOW LOUD I CAN BE?!”

“Nooooooo, shut up!” she insisted, beginning to crawl away from him.

“OKAY, HERE WE GO!” she could still hear Karkat even when she was almost crushing her ears with the pressure of her prongs. “WHEN I SAID YOUR MOIRAIL, I MEANT TEREZI!!”

Vriska tried to not react to that sentence and pretend that she hadn’t heard it. But she had. She had, and now she couldn’t stop thinking about it. About Terezi being her moirail. It wasn't as if she hadn’t thought about it before, they had some moments that made her wonder. But Terezi never actually said anything about a moirallegiance and Vriska hadn’t wanted to assume. 

“We are not moirails,” she protested, weakly.

“You certainly act like it, both of you,” Karkat insisted. “But I said that it was a one-time ash comment and I meant it, so don’t push me for more!”

Yeah, Vriska didn’t want Karkat in any of her quadrants, even if it was the lame ashen one. However, she needed to know why he had thought they were moirails.

“I mean, there have been moments,” she forced herself to say. “But nobody said anything about it, so I assumed I was reading too much into it.”

“Which part of a one-time thing did you not understand, Serket?!” the other troll yelled. “I have never had any interest in auspisticism and, even if I had, I would never be caught dead in one of your quadrants!”

Uuuuuuuurgh, right. She didn’t want anything to do with Karkat either, romantically speaking. But she needed to know and that need was stronger than her discomfort with the idea.

“Don’t act so pompous, I wouldn’t be near any of your quadrants even if you gave me the legendary lost Seal of the First Empress!” she argued back. “Just tell me if Terezi said anything to you or why you thought we were dating!”

“No, no, no, I’m not telling you shit!” Karkat argued back. “If you want to know, ask her yourself!”

“You fucker!” Vriska yelled, frustrated. “Why did you even bring up the topic if you were going to be so skittish about it?!”

“I didn’t do anything! I just assumed that you would be able to recognize when you are in a fucking moirallegiance by yourself!” he argued back. “Not my fault if you are that stupid!”

“Oh, I’m the one who is stupid here?” she screamed. “That’s high praise from the guy who was acting as Makara’s moirail for sweeps without ever getting to any fucking point!”

At that, Karkat finally shut up, looking at her with a hurtful expression before quickly avoiding her eyes. Oh, fuck. Vriska looked back at her notebook, refusing to feel guilty for hurting Karkat’s oversensitive feelings. Totally not her fault if he was touchy about the subject. Also, he had been the first one to bring up Vriska’s past failed relationships!

“That was a low blow,” she heard the other troll complain softly.

“You were the first one to mention my ex-moirail,” Vriska reminded him without any remorse.

“Yeah, I guess that’s fair,” Karkat answered. 

There was an uncomfortable silence in the block then, with Vriska sitting on the floor and Karkat standing, both of them in front of the War Wall and with some of Vriska’s notebooks surrounding them.

“So, remind me why did you fucking made me come here,” Karkat suddenly asked.

“Right,” Vriska replied, happy to let the embarrassing moment fade into the past. “I need to know what powers you have before decidIng your role in the coming battle.”

“ _‘Coming battle’_?” he repeated. “Are you crazy?! We still have a full sweep before getting to the new session!”

“Contrary to other dumbasses I know, I like to use my time productively,” she replied. “What’s the problem? Embarrassed by your lame powers?” she mocked with a huge smile. “I mean, not everyone can be as good as myself, but you must be able to do something.”

The mutant troll avoided her eyes and Vriska could almost see him getting red on his face. That made no sense, it couldn’t be so terrible. Obviously, Vriska’s ability to steal all the luck was the best power of them all, but some of the losers had useful abilities too. 

Both Seers had predictive powers that had kept them on the correct timeline, even Captor’s Mage abilities had already saved all of them once. Strider’s time powers would also be quite useful, once Vriska got rid of his absurd aberration to fighting, and Kanaya might not have shown any Space powers yet, but she was an essential player for a successful game. She was also quite powerful on her own. 

Whatever powers Karkat had, it couldn’t be that bad, right? Unless… Could it be possible that he didn’t have any powers?

“No way,” she whispered. “You HAVE an Aspect, right?! I know you never used any special power against the Black King, but I swear I saw you using Fraymotifs at some point!”

“Of course I have an Aspect, everyone has one,” Karkat replied. “And you don’t need to have any ostentatious power to use Fraymotifs.”

“Soooooooo?” Vriska prodded.

“My Aspect is fucking powerless, okay?” he rushed to say. “You don’t need to know anything else.”

“Meeeeeeeec!” Vriska interrupted with the sound of an incorrect answer. “Who is the player here with an Aspect related to knowledge?” she asked, enjoying mocking what clearly was a sensitive subject for Karkat. “Oh, right! That’s me!”

“So funny,” Karkat rolled his eyes. “You should have been hatched as a purple blood.”

“I hate purple-bloods, so don’t joke about it ever again if you want to keep all your limbs,” Vriska threatened him before sweetening her voice again. “Where was I? Right! I was going to explain to you in great detail why knowing all the players’ Classes and Aspects is soooooooo important from a strategic point of view. In the first place…”

“Blood! My Aspect is fucking Blood, okay?!” the short troll exclaimed. “Will you shut up now?! I’m already getting a migraine!”

Blood, a Knight of Blood then. Wait! Karkat had mutant blood! He had mutant BLOOD and he was the Knight of BLOOD?! Vriska began laughing uncontrollably at the way Sgrub had fucked up with Karkat. Making someone’s worst trait their Aspect was a really sick joke. No wonder he didn’t want to tell her!

“Yeah, yeah, so fucking funny,” Karkat growled. “Of course my Aspect had to be fucking Blood as just another fuck-you directly from paradox space!” he complained loudly. “And if that wasn’t enough, it’s completely useless! No weird powers or visions of the future! Even Sollux’s fucked-up Doom visions can be of some use!”

“Come oooooooon, Blood is the perfect Aspect for you!” Vriska insisted with a huge smile. “Is not as if you have been obsessed with your blood colour for all your life or something like that. Oh, wait, you have!”

She bent over in another uncontrollable fit of laughter, while Karkat growled on her side, clearly annoyed. It took a few moments for Vriska to get her amusement under control, but when she did, she quickly added Karkat’s Aspect to her list.

KARKAT VANTAS → KNIGHT OF ~~?~~ 8LOOD

“There, see?” she said and showed the list to Karkat. “At least I can use my quirk on it, doesn’t it look a lot better this way?”

“Right, the only objective in my life has always been to see my name associated with something written with your stupid quirk,” he said with a deadpan face. “Now that my goal in life had been achieved, I can finally kill myself.”

“You are welcome!” Vriska laughed. “But, seriously, what is your Aspect about? Can you manipulate someone’s blood or something like that?”

“I have no fucking clue. I never managed to use it.” Karkat shrugged. “At the beginning, I thought it might be related to being a strong, sadistic, bloodthirsty leader. But we all know how well I did at leadership.”

Yeah, Karkat was the opposite of a murderous tyrant, he was too soft for that. He was not fit for leadership, at least not the type of leader that trolls were used to. However, he could probably fit the softer human’s version of a leader. Vriska had spent quite some time observing John and she had learned about the humans’ culture in the process. For the most part, they had a peaceful life with soft, peace-loving leaders, while the occasional tyrannical human leader was considered _‘bad people’_. 

“Okay, listen up loser!” she said, fully turning to Karkat. “You gave me unsolicited, embarrassing advice before, so now I’m going to get my revenge with some unsavoury advice of my own.”

“What the fuck?!” Karkat tried to complain but Vriska interrupted him.

“You were not a bad leader,” she said. “And before you begin whining, think of this: of all possible Vantas versions, you are the one that led us to the alpha line.”

“That’s bullshit!” he complained. “I got almost all my friends killed! Since when is that being good at leadership?!”

“Did you even notice how many times you forced us to collaborate and play nice?” she insisted. “Do you really think for a moment that Eridan wouldn’t have tried to kill us all before if you hadn’t been there to listen to his pathetic self-esteem issues? Gamzee would have gone crazy sweeps ago without you being there as his almost-moirail! And if you think for a moment that Kanaya would have stopped me of killing Tavros a lot sooner, think again!”

“If I had been a good leader, nobody would have died!” Karkat repeated, walking around in circles.

“Then, we all would have been doomed and died anyway,” Vriska explained. “We know for sure that this is the alpha timeline, that means that everything that has happened had to happen exactly this way, or we would have been doomed.”

“Fucking perfect!” Karkat yelled. “If everything has _‘happened as it was supposed to happen’_ , what is the point of even trying?!”

“I’m sure that there is a doomed timeline where their Karkat didn’t try to be a leader,” she insisted. “The same way that there is probably another with a version of myself being a soft loser like the rest of you. We only made it this far precisely because we are the right version of ourselves. Maybe not the best, but the needed one.”

At that, Karkat seemed to run out of fuel because he stopped talking and he let himself fall to the floor, sitting on his feet. Vriska decided to ignore him for once, so she began annotating possible Blood powers near Karkat’s name. Maybe she would get lucky and find a book about the topic in one of the bookhives they had discovered inside the meteor. 

She knew first prong that an Aspect’s power was not always related to its title. For example, she was Light but her powers were more related to luck and good fortune than to actual light, while Lalonde had the power to see the best future. Two players with the same Aspect but completely different powers. Probably Blood had more than one meaning too. 

Maybe it could really be something related to leadership? A human version of leadership?

It would explain why everyone ended up following Karkat’s orders and why he didn’t know how to use his powers: he would have been using them from the beginning without realising it. However, that was pure conjecture. It could also be somewhat related directly to his blood, he was the only mutant-blood in their group, after all. She needed more information.

“If this is how things were supposed to go, does that mean that they were meant to die from the beginning?” she heard Karkat ask but she decided to ignore him. “It was not my fault, then?”

“If you are going to be whiny and emotional again, go to your moirail,” Vriska complained. “You already told me what I needed to know, so you can fuck off.”

“Right, sorry,” Karkat said, still in the same soft voice. “It’s only that I don’t believe they HAD to die. I can’t believe that.”

“Technically, they did have to die,” she insisted. “Don’t make me repeat myself.”

“NO, THEY DIDN’T!” he yelled, agitated, jumping to his strut pods again. “THEY WERE NOT FUCKING PAWNS TO SACRIFY FOR A BETTER TIMELINE!!”

“Don’t yell at me,” Vriska growled, getting annoyed.

“I WILL FUCKING YELL ALL I WANT BECAUSE IT WAS NOT.FUCKING.FAIR!!” he kept going. “NOBODY SHOULD BE EXPECTED TO DIE, I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT! AND IF BEING A LEADER ONLY MEANS GUIDING OTHER TROLLS TO THEIR DEATH, THEN I…” 

Vriska looked at him when he abruptly stopped yelling just to stay there, motionless, as if he had just realised something vital.

“Then, I don’t want to be a leader ever again,” Karkat finished with a whisper and the same expression of shock on his face.

That was unexpected. For as long as she had known him, Karkat had had the delusion of himself being the the-facto leader of their group of friends. Before Sgrub he had aspired to become a threshsecutioner, which were a military elite that typically acted as team leaders for lesser trolls. Once in the game, he became obsessed with being their leader and he did a fairly good job at it, against all the odds. A part of her understood his current frustration, but a bigger part got angry that he was giving up his dream just because of a couple of set-backs. Giving up after a failure was quitter talk! She got up, ready to humiliate him until he stopped being such a loser.

**honk**

Vriska’s sponge froze and she turned back to the sound automatically. The huge machine in front of Gamzee’s block was exactly where Vriska had left it, where it was supposed to be. Maybe she had imagined it?

**HONK**

Not her imagination then. It was strange, though. In all the perigees that Makara had been imprisoned, it was the first time she had heard any noise coming from that block. Was Makara trying to call her attention?

“What the fuck was that?!” Karkat asked in a low voice. “Vriska, tell me you also heard a horn and it’s not just me going crazy.” 

“I’m really tempted to fake ignorance and let you believe you have gone mad now, but no, I also heard it,” she replied in the same tone of voice.

**HONKHONKHONKHONKHONKHONKHONKHONKHONKHONKHONK**

“Okay! That’s definitely real!” Karkat yelled, covering his ears. “How the fuck is he making his horns so loud?!”

“No idea!” Vriska yelled back. “It’s the first time! He’s usually really quiet!”

“Do you think he is doing that for a reason?” the short troll asked. “Did you forget to bring his food again?!”

“Of course I didn’t forget!” she answered. “Terezi was with me last time, ask her!”

The honking had not stopped and it almost seemed to become louder, which couldn’t be possible. The sound was so loud now that it was even generating a bit of echo, resonating in the almost empty block. It was giving Vriska’s sponge the beginning of a nasty pan-ache.

“That’s it! I will put him to sleep!” she decided.

Vriska focused her power on the chaotic, loud mind of Gamzee Makara and convinced it that it was tired, too tired to stay awake. In a moment, the honking sound stopped and the mind became quiet and sleepy. Vriska sent an additional wave of drowsiness in that direction, just in case, before that part of her consciousness returned to her own body. 

“Thank fuck, this is much better,” Karkat sighed on her side. “What was that about?”

“No idea, probably just Makara being annoying,” she shrugged.

“But you said that he had never done this before,” he kept talking, pensive. “What if he’s hurt or something like that?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Vriska growled. “What could he have done to hurt himself? There’s nothing in that block!”

“He obviously has his noisy-as-fuck horns and we didn’t manage to take out all of his juggling clubs last time,” Karkat insisted. “Nobody knew how to use his fucking Miracle Modus.”

“So, what?! Are you suggesting that he decaptchalogued his own weapon and hit himself?” she asked but realised who she was talking about at the same time she was saying it. “Right, he is completely out of his mind so he could have clubbed himself. And not the funny kind.”

They stood there for a moment in silence, looking at the machine blocking the secret block. 

“I guess we should check to be sure he isn’t going to bleed out to death or something like that,” Karkat suggested.

“Do we have to?” she complained. “Can’t we forget it and fake surprise when someone finds him dead?”

“First, what’s wrong with you?! That’s horrible!” Vantas replied. “Second, I thought nobody was supposed to die, you know, that rule that everyone agreed on?” he kept going. “And finally, didn’t Lalonde warn us that we needed to keep Gamzee alive at least until the next session or we would all be doomed?”

Right, the human had said something like that and, so far, she had never been wrong before. Vriska sighed. She hadn’t got so far to be doomed by a stupid clown. She began walking towards Makara’s block.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Karkat protested. “Shouldn’t we warn the others? Gamzee already tried to kill us twice!”

“Don’t be such a weak pushover, Vantas!” she replied. “Makara is asleep and I was doing this by myself long before the lot of you decided that it was _‘too dangerous to do it alone’_.”

“Have you forgotten what happened last time he ran free?!” he insisted.

“And whose fault was that?! Who was the one snivelling and arguing about how _‘unfaaaaaaaair’_ the way I was taking care of Makara was?!” she added with a mocking imitation of Karkat’s voice. “I got this, you can run away if you are too scared, coward!”

With that, she captchalogued the huge machine into her sylladex.

“Are you completely sure that he’s asleep?” Karkat insisted.

“Fiiiiiiiine, if I check again, would you shut up?” she said and focused back on Makara’s sponge. “Completely out, he’s probably lost in some dream bubble by now.”

She heard a metallic sound and when she looked over her shoulder, she saw that Karkat had decaptchalogued his sickles.

“You staying, then?” she asked. “I thought you were scared.”

“I’m not leaving you alone,” Karkat insisted with a determined glint in his eyes.

“If you say so,” Vriska shrugged while walking to the hidden switches for opening the secret door. “If you had ever got to God Tier, you would have been the first one to die, with your heroically stupid actions.”

She opened the door and looked inside. There was a figure on the ground, as expected, but it was too dark to see if Makara was hurt. She stepped inside the block.

**HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK**

Vriska almost jumped up to the ceiling at the sound. She immediately looked down and saw several dark shapes just in front of the door. Vriska crunched down a bit and realised that it was horns, all perfectly aligned in two rows. Like the one under her strut pod. It was a trap!

She quickly looked up again and saw two bright red eyes looking at her with bottomless hatred. Then, a malicious smile grew in the scarred face. Uh oh.

Before she could even react, she felt something hitting her torso, there was a sound like tree branches snapping, and she found herself crashing against the opposite wall of the War Block. She fell to the floor and she felt a new, intense pain with her next inhalation. Vriska had been hurt enough times in the past to know that she had several broken thoracic struts.

She forced herself to look up and saw Karkat attacking Makara with his sickles, just to be knocked out by a hit on the back of his thinksponge. Then, the clown caught him before he crashed to the floor and began papping his face, his eyes focused on Karkat. Vriska felt sick. The gesture was clearly meant to be pale, but with Karkat being an unwilling participant and not Makara’s moirail, what would have been an embarrassing but acceptable gesture between two palemates became a twisted, sick mockery of the whole idea of moirallegiance.

“Let him go, you sick bastard!” she growled with the little air she could manage to keep in her bellowsacks. “Karkat already has a moirail and it’s not you!”

Makara froze when he heard her, and his red rage-filled eyes turned towards Vriska. Then, he smiled his crazy full-face smile.

“You are still alive, Motherfucker?” he asked with his abhorrent voice. “Good! Shit would have been too boring otherwise! I can’t let you miss the motherfucking party, can I?!”

Vriska leant on the wall behind her to push herself up from the floor. She was a highblood, she wouldn’t die just of a couple of broken thoracic struts. Karkat, however, was a lowblood. Makara didn’t seem to want to kill him at the moment, but he could change his mind anytime.

Also, Vriska was not going to stay down while that fucker pale-raped her friend!

“Where do you think you are going, invertesister?” she heard Makara say in a mocking tone but she was too busy breathing shallowly to actually care. “Trying to be the hero of the story?” he kept saying in the same sweet voice. 

Suddenly, Vriska heard running steps and raised her eyes just in time to see Gamzee running towards her at high speed with a crazy smile and a bloodied juggling club raised over his thinkpan. Vriska raised her prongs and tried to decaptchalogue her Fluorite Octet. However, it was too late.

“I FUCKING HATE HEROES, MOTHERFUCKER!!” he screamed while bringing his club down.

Vriska screamed when she felt it hit her left arm, hearing more crunching noises. She began falling again only to be stopped by a second hit to her right side, this time on her hip bone. A final sweep on her strut sticks finally threw her to the ground, where she stayed while she felt something exerting pressure on her back. In that position, the pressure was forcing her body against the ground, making her broken thoracic struts hurt even more.

“There, that's your place, under my strut pod,” she heard the crazy clown boasting. “Now, you are going to repeat to me what you just said. Something about my palebro.”

Vriska’s body was sending her too many hurtful signals for her to be able to think about anything else. It was painful to the point of almost making her sick but she had felt worse before. Nothing like having half your body been blown up to put any other future pain into perspective. 

“I don’t have to tell you anything, you sick bastard!” she growled, regretting not listening to Karkat before and telling the others what she was going to do, it had been stupid. “You can kill me if you want, but I still won’t tell you a fucking thing!”

Angering a demented clown was probably not Vriska’s best strategy and she wouldn’t have done it in normal circumstances, not if she had wanted to stay alive. But that was exactly the point. She was pretty sure that if she died right now, she would resuscitate. She had been caught off guard by a fucking horn and she had not done anything to justify a Heroic or Just dead. It had been a stupid, ridiculous mistake. A mistake she would fix as soon as she resuscitated with all her injuries healed.

“Oh no, invertesister, I’m not going to kill you,” Makara crooned. “Not yet at least. Can’t risk you coming back with your MOTHERFUCKING mind powers.”

That was an idea. Vriska tried to focus her powers on Makara’s mind. She was aiming at putting him to sleep again, but the clown grabbed her injured arm and the pain made her lose her concentration. Fuck!

“Ah, ah, ah!” he said, mockingly. “I can feel your nasty inferior mind testing mine. If you try it again, I’ll tear off your arm and add it to my collection. I always liked blue, it would look MOTHERFUCKING AMAZING in my wall.”

Vriska tried to control herself and not panic, but it was getting harder and harder. There was something in Makara, in all purple-bloods, that had always terrified her. They had a presence, a kind of aura that made her feel inferior and weak. Worthless, scum. She knew that he had the strength to do exactly as he promised, and a part of her was scared, remembering how it had felt to lose her arm the first time. She tried to put on a brave front.

“Do you think I care? I lost that arm once already, I can do it again. This is nothing!” she said, as loud as she could. “If you want me to stop, you will have to kill me!”

“That’s your motherfucking plan, right? Tempting me to kill you so you can revive and come back in your full power?” Makara whispered in her ear. “You think you won’t die for real this time? You know better than that, invertesister, crazy people like us don’t get second chances.”

Vriska’s mind froze for a moment when she heard her worst fear said aloud in the clown’s voice. She tried to tell herself that he was lying to her, trying to weaken her resolve. Manipulating her into giving up and obeying him. He was wrong.

But, was he really wrong?

After all, Vriska had died a Just death once in an alternate timeline and she still didn’t know for sure why. She suspected it had to do with her intention to defy Jack on her own and indirectly causing the death of her friends, but she hadn’t done it this time.

What if whatever judged their deaths was keeping a score? Had Vriska done anything in the last half sweep to change her Just dead into a neutral one? Or the opposite, she trying to get murdered just to come back and help Karkat wouldn’t count as a Heroic death?

Makara suddenly pulled her arm harder, making her scream in agony.

“Did that hurt?!” he asked, still in a fake sweet voice. “Good. You must suffer the most for the fucking HUMILIATION OF CONTROLLING ME!” he ended up screaming. “AND FOR WHAT YOU DID TO MY FUCKING WICKED BROTHER!”

Vriska whimpered with the momentaneous increase of pressure on her back, while her probably broken arm was still being pulled back, sending painful waves to her sponge. She tried to convince herself that she had to keep her plan and somehow kill herself or make Makara do it, but now she was unsure. 

What if he was right and she would die a Just death?

“ARE YOU FUCKING IGNORING ME, MOTHERFUCKER?!” Gamzee screamed again, apparently angry for being ignored.

“No! Of course not! I’m just… thinking!” Vriska improvised, wildly rehearsing the clown’s last words. “I get the _‘humiliation’_ part, I guess. I would be pissed too if someone controlled me and kept me in a small block for perigees.”

The strut pod on her back increased its pressure and Vriska forced herself to keep talking, her sponge trying to plan an escape route of this fucked-up situation. If resurrecting was not an option, Vriska would have to do what she did best: do whatever it took to survive.

“Buuuuuuuut,” she let out with the last of her breath, sighing when the pressure decreased again. “I don’t know who you mean by _‘wicked brother’_.”

“DON’T CALL HIM THAT! YOU ARE NOT WORTHY OF THAT NAME!” Makara screamed again.

“Ok, I’m sorry, I won’t do it again,” Vriska forced herself to say. “But, I can’t regret my actions if I don’t know who you mean, right?”

Good plan, Vriska, trying to be rational with a sadistic crazy clown! She really should be trying to make him angry enough to kill her by mistake, regardless of what he had said, but now she was scared of having a Just or Heroic death. And a part of her was revolting at the mere possibility of dying. 

She had bragged about being the only one with the Abdominal sausages to kill herself to become a God Tier during the game, but the truth was that she didn’t. Aradiabot had been the one to beat her almost to death. Even after that, when it was clear that she was going to die, she had tried to force Tavros into taking the responsibility of killing her instead of mind-controlling him and doing it herself. 

In the end, she had bled out alone and got angry at Tavros for failing at something even she couldn’t do. It was easier to blame him for it than to recognise even to herself that she was not as brave as she pretended to be.

“I’m talking about the best wicked brother a motherfucker can have,” Makara began rambling. “A bro with a miraculous gift for slam poetry and the biggest fucking horns ever!”

Wait, what? Vriska stopped listening to Makara’s crazy descriptions of someone that couldn’t be Tavros Nitram, but at the same time could be him from the perspective of a very blind, very pity-struck troll. Holy fuck! Makara was flush for Tavros?!

“Tavros?! Are you talking about Tavros?!” she asked stupidly, forgetting Makara’s previous warning.

Predictively, the strut pod on her back pushed her down again, making her scream and see white spots.

“I TOLD YOU NOT TO SAY HIS FUCKING NAME!” he yelled. “HE WAS A MIRACLE AND YOU STOLE HIM FROM ME! YOU KILLED MY MIRACLE!”

“I will bring him back!” Vriska screamed, desperate.

The pressure on her back decreased and even Makara’s angry aura seemed to diminish a little.

“What did you just say?” he asked in a suspiciously weak voice.

Okay, Vriska, you have prepared your coon and it's time to get into it, no looking back and no regrets.

“I will bring him back,” she repeated, trying to sound confident even when she had no idea how to do that. “When we get to the new session, I will bring him back.”

“How the motherfucking fuck will you do that?” Makara asked the obvious question. “My wicked brother was not God Tier and his yellow flying self also died!”

Good question, how are you going to get out of this one, Vriska? 

Think, think! There were several ways of reviving someone back from the dead in the game. Okay, name them. First, there were the dreamselves that were free extra lives provided by the game. It wouldn’t work, though, because Tavros’ dreamself died. Then, there was the ascension to God Tier, but it wouldn’t work either because both Tavros’ Quest Cocoon and his Sacrificial Slab were destroyed by Jack. 

What else?

Aradiabot was Aradia’s ghost fused with a robot. That could work but they didn’t have any robot with them. Or Tavros’ ghost. They might be able to find a ghost Equius that could fabricate another robot, but she doubted he would. Her old neighbour didn’t like lowbloods. Aradia had been an exception because he had a huge flush crush on her. This plan could work but it had too many variables to be feasible. 

There had to be something else, who or what else had come back to life?

Vriska would have facepalmed herself if she could move. The lusii. All their guardians had died before the game and they were brought back to life prototyping their dead body into a kernelsprite. That was it, that was the perfect way to bring Tavros back.

“The sprites,” she said, almost breathless. “We still have his body, so we can use it to prototype him and bring him back as a sprite in the new session.”

“And what if the sprites had already been used?” Makara growled somewhere over her.

“We have a time player,” Vriska insisted, the plan forming nicely in her sponge. “Once in the right place, he can go back in time and prototype him just before the players use all the sprites.”

Makara didn’t reply to her and Vriska held her breath while she waited. Finally, the purple-blooded troll began laughing, he finally raised his strut pod completely from her spine pole and let go of her arm.

“FUCKING MIRACLES!” he screamed, for the first time with a happy voice. “YOU HAVE BROUGHT MY MIRACLES BACK, INVERTESISTER!”

Vriska grimaced when she felt someone tapping gently the back of her pan a couple of times.

“See? Now you have earned a break!” Makara sentenced. “That fucking miraculous sponge of yours has made you useful again!”

With that, Vriska heard steps going away from her and back in the direction she had last seen Karkat. She forced her pan to turn in that direction and she saw Makara picking up the other troll carefully from the floor. He threw him over his shoulder before grabbing one of his clubs from the ground again. Vriska hoped that Karkat was still alive.

“What are you going to do now?” she managed to ask, grimacing at the weakness in her voice.

“I’m going to make a visit to this time invertebrother,” Makara smiled hugely while walking back to her, club in his prong. “However, I can’t let you warn anyone before I have convinced him to bring back my wicked brother.”

With that, Vriska could barely scream when the club went down one last time on the back of her pan and everything turned dark.

* * *

“Vriska!”

Vriska raised her eyes from the screen of her husktop and looked around. She was alone in her respiteblock. Weird, she could swear she had heard someone calling her name but there was nobody there. Her Trollian beeped with new notifications and, when she checked, there was a message from Terezi. Right, her old friend was probably going to bitch at her again for killing Megido a few nights ago, even if she totally deserved it.

gallowsCalibrator [GC] began trolling arachnidsGrip [AG]

GC: H3Y VR1SK4

GC: 4NYTH1NG TO S4Y

AG: Ummmmmmmmm, no?

AG: A8out what?

GC: 4BOUT K1LL1NG H3R

GC: 4FT3R YOU S41D YOU WOULDNT

AG: Oh, that? I thought we were done talking a8out it!

AG: We concluded I messed up and I'm completely horri8le in every way.

AG: W8, something is wrong

GC: M4YB3 TH3 F4CT TH4T YOU K1LL3D OUR FR13ND??!!

GC: >:[

AG: No, it’s something else

AG: We already had this conversation 8efore

GC: 4R3 YOU SUR3?? 

AG: Yeah, this was just after I killed Aradia and you tricked me into 8lowing myself with my own cue 8all

GC: 4h4h4, y34h!!!! th4t w4s tot4lly r4d, grl!!!!

GC: >8D

AG: ::::o

AG: You are n8t Terezi!!!!!!!!

GC: d4mn grrrrl!!!! th4t w4s f4st, 1m 1mpr3ss3d!!!!

GC: you 4r3 tot4lly 1n f1r3!!!!

AG: Who the hell are y8u????????!!!!!!!!

AG: D::::

GC: oh ch1ll 4x3!!!! 1 d1dnt m34n to l34d you on but 1 w4snt sur3 how th1s works

GC: 1m usu4lly not th3 on3 1ntroduc1ng th3 n3wcom3rs, you know???? 1m too r4d for th4t, you know how 1t 1s

GC: 1ts mor3 s3rk3ts 4r34 of 3xp3rt1s3, th3 grl loooov3s to t4lk

GC: but sh3 h4s gon3 m14 s1nc3 sh3 m3ss3d up w1th your s3ss1on l4st t1m3 4nd got 3vryon3 k1ll3d, h3rs3lf 1nclud3d

GC: so 1 d3c1d3d to st3p 1n 4nd 1ntroduc3 you 4ll to th3 r4dn3ss of our hom3!!!!

AG: Did you just say Serket? Like me?

AG: Oh, of course! This is another dream 8u88le right? I’m dreaming right now

GC: You got 1t!!!! 1 would h1gh f1ve you now 1f 1 could, but 1 gu3ss you 4r3 st1ll too f4r from our bubbl3 for th4t, n3v3r und3rstood how th1s works

GC: l3ts r41nch3ck th4t r4d h1gh f1ve for l4t3r wh3n w3 m33t for r34l!!!!

AG: You are clearly a ghost 8ut you don’t sound like any of my friends or the humans

AG: Who are you?

GC: d1dnt 1 s41d 1t???? tot4lly my b4d, 1 gu3ss 1 got lost 1n th3 r4dn3ss of our f1rst conv3rs4t1on 4nd forgot to 1ntroduc3 mys3lf

GC: th3 nam3 1s pyrop3, l4tul4 pyrop3

Vriska had to reread that last sentence twice before she made the connexion. She rushed to decaptchalogue Mindfang’s journal and browsed the pages quickly until she got to the first mention of Neophyte Redglare, who Vriska later deduced it was Terezi’s ancestor. It was never proved, her pre-mold name never revealed, but the description of Redglare’s sign provided by Vriska’s ancestor was suspiciously similar to Terezi’s. Also, the dragon.

“Come on, Vriska! We don’t have time for this!”

The mysterious voice again. Now that Vriska knew she was in a dream bubble it was easy to deduce that, whoever was calling her, they were in the meteor and trying to wake Vriska up.

Because she was asleep, right?

Latula Pyrope sent Vriska another message, so she sat back on her desk to answer. There was a lot she wanted to ask.

GC: you th3r3, grl????

AG: Yes, sorry. I keep hearing this voice, I think that someone is trying to wake me up 8ut I don’t recognise them

GC: mmmm, m4yb3 you should l1st3n to th3m 4nd w4k3 up

AG: I guess, 8ut first I want to ask you something

GC: sur3, f1r3 4w4y!!!!

AG: Are you Neophyte Redglare?

GC: n4444, sorry grl but no, not r34lly

AG: Oh, of course not, I mean, I didn’t reaaaaaaaally think that you were! That would have 8een completely stup8d! 

GC: no, no, you w3r3 tot4lly r1ght!!!! 

GC: wh4t 1 m34nt 1s th4t 1 would h4v3 b33n h3r 1f 1 h4d l1v3d 1n 4lt3rn1a, wh1ch btw w4s such 4 r4d pl4n3t!!!! th3 on3 c4ll3d r3dgl4r3 w4s 4n 4lt3rn4t3 v3rs1on of m3

AG: What do you mean by ‘if you had lived in alternia’? Where else would y8u have lived???????!!!!!!!

GC: do 1 r34lly n33d to 3xpl41n th1s???? h3r3 1s w3r3 s3rk3t would usu4lly t4k3 ov3r 4nd w4st3 4n hour w1th h3r d3t41l3d 4nd bor1ng monologu3

AG: 8ut you said that she was mia, so she can’t explain it anymore and y8u do!!!!!!!!

GC: ok4y, ok4y, 1 w1ll try!!!! you s3r1ously n33d to r3l4x grl

AG: I can’t relax!!!!!!!! Y8u have important information that I need and there’s als8 this feeling like I’m going to wake up s88n

AG: Am I even asleep? I don’t remem8er going to my coon

GC: h3y, 1 c4n 3xpl41n who 1 4m or w3 c4n try to r3fr3sh your m3mory, 1m cool w1th 31th3r

GC: >8]

AG: Can you give me a resumed version of who you are? And then we can figure out why I’m here, I got the feeling that something is going on in the meteor and I should go 8ack

GC: sure, 4s you w1sh, grl!!!!

GC: so, you know how th3 hum4n’s r3s3t3d th31r s3ss1on, r1ght????

AG: How do you know a8out the humans? Y8u know what? Never mind! No time f8r random questions!

AG: And yes, they scratched their session 8ecause there was no way they could have won. We are en route to the new session right n8w.

GC: you got 1t!!!! so, lss, you 4nd your troll fr13nds 4r3 th3 scr4tch3d v3rs1on of our s3ss1on

AG: wh8t????!!!!

GC: y34h, 1 gu3ss 1 should 4polog1z3 for m3 4nd my fr13nds m3ss1ng up our s3ss1on so b4d th4t w3 n3dd3d to scratch 1t, thus cr34t1ng your 4lt3rn1a

GC: how3v3r your v3rs1on of b3forus w4s so much mor3 r4d1c4l!!!! 1t w4s toooot4lly r4d!!!!

AG: 8eforus

GC: y34h, th4t w4s th3 n4m3 of our pl4n3t b3for3 th3 g4m3 4nd th3 scr4tch. 1t w4s so l4m3, though!!!!

GC: 3v3ryon3 w4s b31ng n1c3 to 3v3ryon3 4nd 4ll thos3 rul3s!!!! rul3s 4nd rul3s 4nd rul3s!!!! you could b4r3lly s4y 4nyth1ng w1thout som3one t4k1ng of3ns3 4nd thr34t3n1ng to r3port you for cull1ng!!!! 

GC: 4s 1f th3y would 3v3r c4tch m3 l1v1ng th3 h1gh bor1ng l1f3 w1th 4ny of thos3 l4m3 h1ghbloods!!!!

AG: So, when someone was culled in your world, they weren’t killed?

GC: s33???? your v3rs1on of troll cultur3 w4s so much b3tt3r!!!! 

GC: 1t g4v3 4 prop3r m34n1ng to th3 word cull1ng!!!! not th1s ‘4dobt3d by a h1ghblood for troll soc13ty s4f3ty’ bullsh1t!!!! th3 st4k3s w3r3 r34l 1n 4lt3rn14!!!! tot4lly r4d1c4l, grl!!!!

AG: …

GC: 4nd your gu4rd14ns??!! grl!!!! th3y w3r3 soooo cool!!!! murd3rous monst3rs r41s1ng wr1gl3ss sur3 m4d3 4 d1ff3r3nc3 comp4r3d to our l4m3 ov3rb34r1ng 4dult c4r3t4k3rs!!!!

AG: Let me see if I got it straight

AG: Your version of alternia didn’t have culling as a death sentence, your wigglers didn’t have to suffer through feeding and taking care of murderous lusii, your adults stayed in the planet to raise the grubs, the high8loods were compassionate instead of genocidal, and the worse problem in your life was to accidentally offend someone and be sent away to be taken care of and sp8iled????????!!!!!!!!

GC: 4nd th3 1nt3rm1n4bl3 m4nd4tory l4m3 conf3r3nc3s 4bout 3qu4l1ty 4nd r3sp3ct1ng 34ch oth3r. 3v3ryth1ng w4s so l4444m3!!!!

AG: You are c8mpletely stuuuuuuuupid!!!!!!!!

AG: D::::

GC: who4 th3r3!!!! you should h4sht4g th3s3 typ3 of d1r3ct 4cuss4t1ons!!!!

AG: Shut up! Do y8u have a minimal idea of what it was like to grow up in my w8rld???????!!!!!!!

GC: w3ll, y3s, w3 4ll s4w 1t

AG: You saw it?! Y8U SAW IT???????!!!!!!!

AG: I’m n8t fucking talking of ‘seeing’ it! I’m talking about living it! I’m talking of 8eing 8arely a sweep old and tricking my first friend t8 my hive so my lusus c8uld tear her apart instead of eating me!!

GC: >8o

AG: I’m talking a8out the hundreds and hundreds of low8loods I was forced to feed to that ravenous, egotistical huge sp8der to survive!!!!!!!! I’m talking of the high8loods going into periodic rage sprees near my friends’ h8ves!!!!!!!! 

AG: Or of having this constant fear to show any weakness 8ecause I knew that if I did, even for a second, I would 8e culled on the sp8t!!!!!!!!

GC: slow down, grl

AG: I paralysed, manipulated, and killed my 8wn friends! I have 8een a complete renegade all my life, to the p8int that even now everyone thinks that I’m a psychopath and y8u know what?! They are a8solutely r8ght!!!!!!!!

GC: >8[

AG: And now it turns out that the ancestor I admired so much not 8nly failed in her own session, 8ut also came to mess with ours and g8t everyone killed!!!!!!!!

GC: grl...

AG: So fuck y8u, and fuck y8ur hypocrisy, and y8ur stupid radness 8ullshit! Y8u weren’t the one that had to live through that! I wish I had had the freedom and security y8u took for granted and decided to thr8w away!!!!!!!!

GC: w41t, s3rk3t

AG: Go pail y8urself!!!!!!!!

arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling gallowsCalibrator [GC]

arachnidsGrip [AG] blocked gallowsCalibrator [GC]

Vriska closed Trollian and stepped away from her husktop. She was furious at Redglare, or whoever that had been, and furious at her ancestor. At all of them! How had Redglare dared to watch her hellish life from the safety of her dream bubble and decided that it was better than their apparently idyllically peaceful world, just because it was more _‘radical’_! It was so easy to judge when your life wasn’t on the line!

She sighed, feeling the anger leave her and being replaced by a strange lightness as if she had lost a crushing weight. Maybe she had. It had been the first time she had properly ranted about how much she had hated her lusus and the troll she forced her to become. If she ever met Redglare in person, she would probably be ashamed of her overly emotional outburst, but with the huge number of ghosts out there it was highly improbable. She had had some useful information, though, Vriska should have asked for more instead of getting angry for his stupid comments.

“VRISKA!”

Oops, she had to wake up asap, duty called, literally. Was she really asleep? 

The last thing she remembered was talking with Karkat in the War Block, laughing at his Aspect. Right, he was a Knight of Blood and that had been hilarious at that moment, even if she didn’t remember why now.

What else?

They talked about embarrassing stuff. Vantas had mentioned Kanaya and Terezi and they had talked about quadrants, of all the things. And then he said something about not wanting to be a leader if it meant that he would be leading his friends to their death. Vriska was going to punch him for giving up, but then…

Vriska opened her eyes hugely when she remembered what happened after that. Makara tricking them into opening the door and attacking her. The purple-blood breaking several of Vriska’s bones before kidnapping an unconscious Karkat and knocking her out. That was it! The reason she had to wake up! Makara was free and she had to stop him!

Vriska looked around, trying to find a way to wake herself. Her eyes fell to a rusted sword, probably a treasure of one of her multiple FLARP campaigns. She took it up. It was old but still sharp. She turned it around, with the tip pointing towards her chest. The quickest way to wake up from a dream, especially if your body was unconscious, was to get killed in the dream bubble. Vriska knew this, and she was one hundred per cent sure that she was dreaming but, still, she hesitated.

“Come on, Vriska! You have to do this!” she said aloud, trying to convince herself. “You won’t die for real, this is just a dream! And even if it weren’t, you are a God Tier, so you will be fine!”

She managed to apply a bit of pressure on the sword, but her prongs were trembling and stopped obeying her.

“Stop being a weak coward!” she screamed. “Makara has Karkat and he was going after Strider! Nobody knows he’s free and it will probably be too late to save everyone if you don’t get up now!” the tip of the sword cut through her clothes but the pressure was still too light to break her tough skin. “If you don’t do it he will kill everyone! Kanaya, Captor, Lalonde, Strider, Karkat, even the carapacian! He will torture and kill Terezi!!”

With that last thought in mind, she screamed and finally pushed the sword through her chest.

* * *

On the floor of the War Block, Vriska woke up suddenly, only to yell at the pain in her whole body. Right, Makara had beaten her before knocking her out, she had conveniently forgotten that part.

“Vriska!” she heard someone call her, realising for the first time that the voice that had been calling her was Lalonde’s. “You finally woke up!”

“Heard you in my dream,” Vriska said with a grimace while she made a mental list of every part of her body that was painfully torturing her. “Sorry it took so long, I didn’t realise I was in a dream bubble at first, and then I met someone new and unexpected.”

“As intriguing as that sentence is, you will have to save the explanation for later,” Lalonde interrupted her. “We are running out of time.”

“Yeah, Makara is free. He tricked us into checking on him and took Karkat,” Vriska explained. “How long was I out?”

“I don’t know for sure,” the human said. “A few minutes since I got here, and I came right after we got the warning from Sollux.

“What warning?” she asked while she tried to sit up, carefully.

“It seems that he had another Doom vision,” Lalonde explained while she grabbed Vriska’s right shoulder and helped her sit up properly. “He saw Gamzee taking us one by one to his room, and making Karkat and Dave watch while he killed us all. Sollux sent a memo to everyone to warn us and to ask for our help in confronting Gamzee.”

Wow, that was sick. Kidnaping everyone only to kill them in front of Karkat and the human? That was a sure way to make anyone crazy, especially someone as sensitive as that duo. And they called her a psychopath.

“Yeah, I can totally see Makara doing something like that,” Vriska said. “I’m still surprised he didn’t kill me right in the spot. I guess he wanted me to suffer.”

“He seems to have beaten you considerably,” Lalonde agreed. “Can you get up?”

“Of course I can,” she replied. “Did you forget who you are talking to?”

Lalonde rolled back her eyes and offered her help, but Vriska ignored her. Using her right prong against the wall she tried to move her strut pods but the smallest movement sent a painful shock to her sponge. Something was wrong, she didn’t remember Makara touching her strut sticks. She used her prong to touch them carefully until she noticed that her bones were broken in several places. On both strut sticks, so she wouldn’t be able to walk. Vriska didn’t understand how she hadn’t noticed that her strut sticks were useless before but saw the irony in it. She laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Lalonde asked with a strange tone of voice.

“The bastard broke my strut sticks,” she explained. “He paralyzed me, at least temporarily, just as I did to Tavros sweeps ago. Makara probably thought it was ironically funny.”

Right, Makara had been flushed for Tavros, and the only reason Vriska was still alive was that she had foolishly told him how to bring Tavros back to life. He probably didn’t want her to rush in too soon or warn the others and that was why he had broken her strut sticks after knocking her out. That and cold revenge.

“Where are the others?” she asked.

“They went to Gamzee’s section, to stop him,” Lalonde explained. “Dave has not answered any of our messages, so we assumed that he had been abducted too.”

“He’s alive, Makara needs him in the new session,” Vriska said while she tried to figure out what to do next. “Wait, if everyone went to the clown’s old section, why are you here, Lalonde?”

“I felt that this was the right thing to do,” the human said. “We definitely need Gamzee to be alive when we reach the new session and you are the only one that can stop Sollux from killing him. Can you fly? If not, I can use my powers on you.”

“Captor?!” she exclaimed, surprised. “No, you got it wrong, Lalonde. That dumbass doesn’t have the abdominal sausages to hunt anyone down and kill them intentionally, trust me, I know it first prong,” Vriska argued. “Don’t get me wrong, he certainly has the ability, with his crazy psionics, and I’m sure he killed trolls before in duels and in self-defense. But he’s too soft to kill a former friend.”

At least without anybody controlling him. Not the time for this, Vriska! She focused on her God Tier powers and felt her clothes change and the wings appear on her back. Fluttering her wings a couple of times, she managed to float a few centimetres from the floor. She was embarrassingly clumsy, though.

“I don’t know the exact circumstances, but I know for a fact that he would kill Gamzee if we let him,” Lalonde sentenced. “And I also know that the only one that can stop him is you.”

“Yeah, of course that I’m the only one that can make shit work around here, why am I even surprised?” Vriska replied. “Usually I won’t have any problems with that role, but if you haven’t noticed yet, it’s not exactly my best hour.”

“You can use your powers even like this, right?” Lalonde insisted. “It’s not as if you need to walk to telepathically control anyone.”

“Wait, what do you exactly want me to do?!” Vriska asked with a nasty feeling. “I can’t mind-control Captor half of the time and it’s not precisely easy to concentrate when your full body hurts like hell!”

Vriska was glad that she could at least fly, but it was really hard to concentrate on anything when half of her body was dead weight. It turned out that being paraplegic was harder than she had ever imagined, it put Tavros’ ineptitude to do anything productive in a new perspective.

She tried to fly straight up but somehow ended sliding to the side and crashing up with the wall on her left. With her broken left arm. The pain made her lose control completely and she fell back to the ground. Which, of course, made more pain aflore.

“Fuck! This won’t work,” Vriska decided. “Makara knew what he was doing. He hurt me just enough to incapacitate me for a fight, but not enough to make me die quickly from it.”

That was the main problem. If Vriska died maybe she would be lucky enough to keep herself from having a Just death. But, like this she would only slow down Lalonde and be a burden in their fight with Makara. She had to die in an insignificant way, and quickly. There was no way she could kill herself fast with only one arm, though.

“You have to kill me,” she said, looking up at Lalonde. “And make it stupid and irrelevant.”

“I will not do such a thing,” the human refused. “We only need your mental powers to stop Sollux, I will take care of the rest.”

“You don’t get it! I’m a liability! I can’t even fly by myself like this!” she protested. “What makes you think I will be of any help once we get there?! I don’t even know if I can use my mind powers in my state! I would be better dead!”

Suddenly, Vriska felt her body being surrounded by a strange energy and raised from the floor. A quick look towards the human girl revealed that she had one of her weapons in her prong and she was aiming directly at her with it.

“Put me down, Lalonde!” Vriska yelled. “I saw what you did with those sticks during the duel! I don’t want to blow up!” she complained before thinking better of it. “No, wait! That’s exactly what we need! You can kill me quickly with your stupid powers and be sure it’s irrelevant enough that I revive!”

“I promise you that you are quite safe, and I already told you that I have no intention to kill you,” Lalonde replied while beginning to walk towards the stairs. “Asking me to kill you with the intention of coming back and saving everyone sounds quite heroic to me. We can’t have you having a Heroic death, can we?”

“Of course you would also let me down the only time I ask for a favour! This is my life, people!” she complained dramatically, “Wait! Not that way, go back to the transportaliser in the corner! If Makara is really in his section, I know a shortcut.” Vriska instructed. “And you are fucking wrong by the way, there is no chance in hell I can have an Heroic death. I haven’t done anything heroic yet!”

The human seemed to doubt for a few moments before turning around and walking back in the opposite direction, towards the transportalizer in the other extreme of the block, keeping Vriska floating in front of her.

“Seriously Lalonde, you have to kill me, there’s no other choice,” Vriska insisted. “You know that I would be in much better condition to fight once I have resurrected.”

“What makes you be so sure that you won’t have a Heroic death?” the human asked.

“Come on! I know you haven’t known me for long but you must have heard some stories,” Vriska laughed in self-loathing. “If anything, I should be worried about having a Just death. Not that I will, of course, I’m too lucky for that!”

“I have had my suspicions but everyone has been surprisingly tight-lipped,” Lalonde commented. “And rumours are hardly a reliable source of information.” 

Both of them stepped on the transportaliser and appeared in an empty block with a hallway leading straight. 

“That way,” Vriska instructed, nodding to the hallway. “And of course nobody told you anything, we wouldn’t want to begin another revenge spree in the meteor. It’s not your fucking business either!”

“Those are the exact type of rumours and almost-accusations I have been hearing,” Lalonde nodded. “Sadly, without verification from the source it could all be falsehoods against a perfectly civil individual.”

“Civil?!” Vriska laughed at that. “You know that I died a Just death before, right? When Terezi killed me, just before we met you near the Green Sun?”

“That was in another timeline,” Lalonde refuted. “You are not that other Vriska, so whatever she did to deserve that punishment, it could very well not apply to you. What makes you believe you’ll have a Just death?”

Vriska observed Lalonde with squinted eyes. Something was weird there, the human was clearly scheming something. It was such a shame that Vriska’s mind-powers didn’t let her actually read other people’s thoughts. She could blame Lalonde’s reluctance to kill her to her humanity, but she knew that the human was smart, wily and cold when she needed to be.

Why was she suddenly so interested in Vriska’s past? 

“You don’t really think I’m a nice, peaceful troll, nobody does,” Vriska accused her. “So, what is your angle here? What do you really want?”

Lalonde smiled at her coldly and stopped walking in the middle of the hallway, keeping Vriska floating in the air in front of her. The human looked directly into Vriska’s eyes without saying anything for a few moments, probably trying to intimidate her. Vriska kept her gaze on the human’s eyes without any difficulty and even raised one of her eyebrows in a sardonic gesture. Bigger and more dangerous individuals had tried to intimidate Vriska in the past and failed, Lalonde wasn’t even trying.

“I have the ability of figuring out someone’s character and personality quite easily,” Lalonde commented. “Call it a sixth sense if you would. It’s quite easy to understand the fundamental parts of their true nature along with their fears, the secrets they kept even from themselves, their wishes and their dreams,” she continued. “It has always helped me to predict their actions and intentions, to a certain degree, of course. Based on that, I decide if someone is trustworthy or a threat, and act in consequence,” the human rambled. “For some reason, I can’t get a clear read of you.”

So, Lalonde didn’t know if she could trust her and she wasn’t ready to let her guard down near Vriska. That was surprisingly rational and sensible. Vriska wouldn’t trust herself either. It didn’t answer her question, though.

“So, you don’t know if I’m an ally or an enemy,” Vriska concluded. “Not that I blame you for that, but is this the right moment for this interrogation? I thought we were on a rush here.”

“You are absolutely right,” Lalonde nodded politely. “However, as I see it, right now both of us want something that only the other can provide.”

Oh! So Lalonde was suggesting a trade. Information for a quick, inconsequential death that would allow Vriska to revive with her full power. Not bad.

“Let me be straight about this here: if I told you what you want to know about me, you will kill me?” she clarified. “In a way that will not be either Just or Heroic and will _‘reset’_ me, I mean.”

“That’s exactly my wish, with the amendment that the information you give me has to be truthful and verifiable,” Lalonde confirmed. “We don’t have much time though so, as much as I usually prefer detailed information, this time I will conform with the basics.”

“Alright, deal. What do you want to know, exactly?” she insisted. “And we really should keep moving, we don’t want to be late.”

“Of course,” the human smiled and began walking again, moving Vriska’s floating body along her. “Just a general background of anything remarcable in your childhood that you consider important. I’m also particularly interested in how you fit in your group of friends, I noticed certain hostility towards you.”

“I know they hate me, you don’t need to be cute about it,” Vriska rolled her eyes back. “There’s not much to tell about my grubhood. My guardian was this gigantic monstrous spider lusus that used to scream directly into my mind almost constantly, always ordering me to bring her more lowblood trolls for her to eat.”

Vriska observed Lalonde cautiously from the corner of her eye, but the human didn’t show any reaction to that revelation. Encouraged by the lack of recrimination, Vriska kept talking.

“For this reason I began playing FLARP, which was this amazing role-playing game but with real stakes. There were real pirate boats and real treasure, and, of course, you could die for real during a campaign,” she smiled, remembering her best years. “I was the best at it, as expected, and thanks to that I managed to keep my lusus good fed and happy enough to not kill me,” Vriska explained before turning towards Lalonde again. “I’m not really proud of it but I did what I had to do, it was them or me.”

“I certainly see the ethical issue in that situation,” Lalonde replied with an indifferent tone, as if she didn’t really care that Vriska had killed thousands of trolls. “How did you meet your friends?”

“I met Terezi first in one of the first FLARP campaigns I participated in,” she explained. “Eridan too, he was actually my kismesis for a while, but he was such a disappointment so I ended up breaking our spade,” she shrugged. “I also met Aradia and Tavros through FLARP. Oh, and Equius was my neighbor. In global, they knew the rest of the group, so I eventually had to interact with them too. Friends of friends, you know how it is.”

“Of course,” the human agreed, politely. “You mentioned that you paralysed Tavros, care to elaborate on that?”

“I tried to kill him during a FLARP game but failed and he ended up paraplegic,” Vriska shrugged. “You didn’t know him, so, trust me, he was such a lame, weak troll. An embarrassment for our culture, as if being a mud blood wasn’t enough.” she explained. “I actually tried to help him to become stronger, but he never listened and that just made me hate him more and more until I ended up making him jump out of a cliff.” she confessed. “I didn’t really want to kill him, but the white text guy kept pestering me over it, saying that he knew I was going to do it anyway. I guess he was right.”

Abruptly, Vriska’s body stopped moving and, when she turned back to Lalonde, she saw a surprised expression on her face for the first time since Vriska had begun talking. The human almost seemed scared.

“Please, tell me that by _‘white text guy’_ you are not talking about an obnoxious, omnipotent creep that wrote completely in white and didn’t even have a handle!” Lalonde exclaimed. “Did I mention that he was a total creep?”

“Yes!” Vriska exclaimed. “A fucking pretentious smug bastard that always knew everything and talked in riddles all the fucking time!”

“He lied to you, or lied by omission, which is totally a thing regardless of what he said!” the human replied. “He did the same to me! That old creep led me to believe that I could destroy the Green Sun and kill him and Jack, but in the end I ended up creating the Green Sun!” Lalonde exclaimed with clear frustration. “He manipulated me and probably also you.”

So, Lalonde was also manipulated by that creep. That sick bastard really had his putrid prongs in all the pies! In some way, the fact that she hadn’t been the only one manipulated made Vriska feel a bit better. Lalonde was clearly not stupid, and even with that she had made the same mistakes as Vriska. Well, maybe not the exact same mistakes but close enough.

“He totally manipulated me,” Vriska recognized. “And the worst part is that I knew that he was doing it but I ended up doing what he told me anyway.”

Lalonde nodded and sent her a sympathetic look before turning back to the front and beginning to walk again.

“What happened after that?” the human asked. “I don’t think your mutual friends would have been pleased with your actions.”

“Everything went downhill after that,” Vriska said. “Aradia sent her ghosts to haunt me in vengeance, and I reciprocated by having her killed, also the white guy’s suggestion,” she confessed. “She became a ghost then but nobody knew, so almost all my friends turned against me. Terezi blew up half of my body, and in vengeance I blinded her.”

Lalonde didn’t say anything this time, so Vriska kept talking. It was almost liberating, putting all of her past mistakes in the open like that. 

“That was sweeps before the game, though,” she explained. “Then, we all decided to play, following Aradia’s ghost suggestion, and when we were in the game she first merged with a sprite, then a robot and, eventually, ascended to God Tier,” Vriska resumed. “So, in a way, I guess that she was supposed to be dead from the beginning. She actually killed me in the game, that’s how I ascended. Then, we won the game, your Jack appeared and went in a rampage, and we were trapped in the meteor,” Vriska explained as fast as she could. “Gamzee and Eridan went in a murder spree killing Nepeta, Equius, Feferi and Kanaya, who came back as a rainbow drinker and murdered Eridan. Then we met you in the Green Sun. End of story.”

They had reached the hole in the ground caused by the monster Vriska destroyed half a sweep ago. He had found some of its remains later when exploring Makara’s section. That was how she knew that it was a shortcut to his section.

“Tavros was also dead before we arrived at the meteor, though, ” she heard Lalonde say from behind her but she couldn’t turn around to look at her. “You were the one to kill him, right? Why?”

“I don’t know,” she confessed. “Tavros was trying to stop me from going after Jack and that made me furious! I mean, after all the time I had spent trying to help him grow a spine he chose that precise moment to show some courage. I hated him so much then!”

“Oh, you hated him, in a romantic way I mean,” the human said, in a more relaxed voice. “I guess that makes the killing accepted by troll’s culture. Which direction now?”

“Down,” Vriska instructed. “And it was not like that with Tavros, we were supposed to be flush, but whatever. Have you decided to kill me already, Lalonde?”

“I have one more question first,” the human said, again in her impassible voice. “How does Sollux fit in your story?”

Vriska froze. Or at least her sponge did because she had no control over her body, which was still descending under Lalonde’s power. She had avoided mentioning Captor precisely because she knew that he and Lalonde had been getting close lately. 

If Lalonde killed her in vengeance for what Vriska did to Captor, would that be considered Just?

“He doesn’t,” Vriska said, quickly.

Suddenly, Vriska’s body stopped descending and stood there, suspended in the air with the feeling of Lalonde’s cold eyes focused on her neck. Fuck.

“Don’t lie to me, that was not our deal,” the human warned. “I know for a fact that Aradia was Sollux’s moirail for years before the game. Even though killing her girlfriend could be reason enough, something tells me that his hatred for you is based on more than just that.”

Vriska began sweating. She had thought she could give Lalonde some bits of information, enough to make her happy and convince the human to help her. But she had forgotten that Lalonde was also a Light player, one that craved and accumulated information even more than Vriska. She had to give her something, but she had the feeling that telling her what she had done to Lalonde’s newfound friend wouldn’t end well for her.

“Well?” Lalonde insisted and Vriska felt the power surrounding her becoming colder and darker.

“Okay, okay!” she exclaimed, seeing that she had no other option. “Aradia was not exactly easy to kill, I had to use someone powerful and with whom she would let her guard down.”

Lalonde didn’t say anything for a moment but Vriska felt the silent threat her power presented. She looked down and tried to see the ground but it was too dark. If she remembered correctly, they were still half way down.

Would she be able to fly if Lalonde let her fall? Or should Vriska just let herself crash against the ground and hope of having a meanfuless death?

“You mind-controlled Sollux and forced him to kill his own moirail,” she heard Lalonde conclude behind her. “You made him kill someone he loved, and I will assume he actually has the memory of doing it. Karkat obviously knew about this incident, probably Sollux told him because they had been best friends since they were kids,” the human continued. “That’s why they can’t stand you and why Karkat is so defensive when you threat to mind-control Sollux.”

“I don’t mean it!” Vriska complained. “I threaten everyone without really intending to do anything all the time! It isn’t my fault if he’s so sensitive about it!”

Abruptly, Vriska’s body was turned around. In front of her, Lalonde was looking at her with ice-cold eyes and a darkness more dark than anything Vriska had felt before surrounding her. For a moment, her presence was almost as terrifying as a purple-blood’s

“I think I have a fairly clear picture of who you are now, Serket,” Lalonde said with special emphasis in Vriska’s name. “I have a last question, though,”

“You already say that last time,” Vriska growled. “Whatever, ask.”

“What about my brother?” the human asked, ignoring Vriska’s complaints.

“Who?” she asked, confused by the term.

“Dave Strider,” Lalonde specified. “You said before that Makara won’t kill him because he needs him in the new session. How did you know that?”

Oh, right. She had actually opened her mouth and confessed that without even realising what she was doing. Probably telling the human that Vriska had mentioned Lalonde’s _‘brother’_ name to distract Makara from killing her wasn’t the most intelligent thing to do. Well, she had already messed up telling her about Captor.

What was one more mistake to add to the pile?

“Makara is obsessed with Tavros, apparently he was flushed for him,” Vriska forced herself to confess, against her instinctual instinct to survive. “As I was the one to kill his sweetheart, he was going to kill me before in the War Block. I had to improvise, so I kind of told him that I could bring Tavros back in the next session.”

“You were absolutely bluffing,” Lalonde deduced. “What has that to do with Dave?”

“Yeah, it was totally a bluff. Fortunately, I’m pretty good at scheming under pressure,” Vriska said, incapable of not boasting a bit. “So, I figured that the only way to bring Tavros back would be to throw his body into a kernelsprite.”

Vriska could almost see Lalonde’s sponge working out the implications of that. How for them to be sure that there was a free sprite to use, once in the new session they would need to go back in time. And how for them to be able to go back in time, they needed a Time player, in other words, Dave Strider.

“You sold him out,” Lalonde accused her with a cold, emotionless voice. “You sold my brother out to a psychopath just to live a few minutes longer.”

Suddenly, Vriska couldn’t breathe, the cold energy around her constricting her broken thoratic struts and crushing her broken bones.

“You used your powers to control a friend into killing his own girlfriend,” the human continued. “You paralysed and killed another just because he didn’t correspond to your romantic feelings.”

There was something cold and dark getting into Vriska’s insides through her mouth, making it even harder to breathe.

“You sow destruction and pain everywhere you go, without any regard for who will be trapped in your spider web,” was Lalonde’s final accusation. “You were right, you don’t deserve a Heroic death. Someone like you will never be a hero.”

Just like that, the energy surrounding Vriska disappeared and she began falling. Before she could even try to use her God Tier powers to fly, something cold as ice went through her body. Vriska had just the time to see Lalonde’s furious expression and her raised wand directly aiming at her before everything turned black.

When she opened her eyes again, she was floating a few meters over the floor, with her God Tier clothes and all her injuries healed. She had resuscitated. Vriska almost cried in her relief of not having had a Just death.

“You are lucky we need you because, right now, I would love to kill you again and again,” Vriska heard someone say.

She turned towards the voice, her Fluorite Octet in her prong. Lalonde was floating in midair behind Vriska, with her two magic wands resting comfortably on her prongs as a silent threat.

“You really killed me,” Vriska said, carefully. “I didn’t think you had it in you, you are human after all.”

“Let’s make this clear,” the human said, her voice the same cold threat that Vriska remembered from just before her recent death. “I don’t like you. Sollux is completely right at calling you a psychopath,” Lalonde accused her. “You might have had a bad childhood but that doesn’t excuse your behavior. We all have our past and we have not let it define us,” she kept saying. “You are selfish, egocentric and dangerous. In other words: a bitch.”

“Did you look in the mirror recently?” Vriska argued back. “Because you just described yourself.”

“However, for some strange reason, we need you if we want to win this game,” Lalonde continued, completely ignoring Vriska’s remark. “And I know for certain that without your collaboration, Gamzee dies today, dooming all of us,” she argumented. “So, we will put aside our differences, do what we have to do today and, after that, we will ignore each other for the rest of our journey. Deal?”

“You forget that I’m the main strategist in the meteor, so we will have to see each other at some point,” Vriska indicated, getting angry with Lalonde’s arrogance. “And I don’t plan to hide just to avoid you, I was in the meteor first.”

“Fine, we will remain civil and collaborate for the good of this expedition,” Lalonde acceded. “But that will be it. We aren’t friends and won’t be. I would say that I hate you but that would have cultural implications for you that will misrepresent my feelings.”

“Yeah, yeah, you hate me platonically,” Vriska shrugged. “Get in line, almost everyone does. For your information, I don’t care, and I don’t like your arrogant attitude either.”

“Good, then we have an arrangement,” the human nodded. “Now, we have work to do.”

Vriska shrugged and lowered herself to the ground, trying to orientate herself. She recognised the dark spot on the ground a few steps from her, left behind by the monster Vriska killed so long ago.

“This way,” she indicated. “The hallway is not long, but Makara’s block is huge and he would probably be at the end, where he killed Nepeta and Equius.”

“Right,” Lalonde nodded and began walking.

“So, what’s exactly your plan?” Vriska asked, trying to make sure they were on the same page. “Did you have a vision like Captor’s, or how it works for you?”

“I don’t get visions, I simply know things,” the human corrected her. “And what I know is that everyone will be there, intend on killing Gamzee, and we have to stop them.”

“While also stopping Makara from killing us, you mean,” she added, just for the pleasure of correcting Lalonde. “He won’t precisely thank us for saving his life.”

“I will subdue Gamzee,” Lalonde replied. “I believe that Terezi and Kanaya can be reasoned with, but I have the feeling that Sollux won’t listen to me and he would keep trying to kill Gamzee.”

“And that’s why you need me, to stop him,” Vriska concluded. “He will be pissed about me mind-controlling him, so I’m not taking responsibility for this. If he comes to me whining about it, I’m telling him it was your idea.”

“Avoiding any kind of responsibility, Vriska? How surprising,” the human mocked her. “Don’t worry, I will talk with him afterwards.”

They had reached the end of the hallway and stopped in front of an opened door. For putting it in a polite way. The door had clearly been ripped off of the wall and was resting on the ground, inside the block. Judging by the blue and red lights reflecting from inside, the others were already there. Vriska readied herself to run into the fight but Lalonde grabbed her arm, stopping her.

“Only stop Sollux from killing Gamzee,” she said in a threatening voice. “If you try to manipulate him further than that, I will kill you again.”

“As much as I appreciate a good threat, I thought we were in a rush here,” Vriska said, getting rid of Lalonde’s prong and jumping into the block.

As expected, the action was concentrated at the back of the block. Vriska ran towards the figures in a semicircle, who were clearly ready for a strife. She couldn’t recognize any face from that distance but Kanaya’s bright skin and Captor’s psionics were easy to recognize. The last figure in their side was shorter and had a cane, so it didn’t take a genius to deduce that it was Terezi. The three of them were confronting a taller shape, whom Vriska assumed was Makara. There was something on the ground behind the taller troll that was probably Karkat and Strider’s unconscious bodies.

Vriska began flying, trying to cut the distance between them faster. Just then Makara jumped forwards with astonishing speed and hit Captor, sending him to the side. Kanaya was the first one to react, cutting one of his juggling clubs and putting herself between her unconscious moirail and Makara, while Terezi’s sword went straight to the heart. The purple-blood avoided the attack and used his second club to hit Terezi’s side, sending her crashing into the wall. Vriska restrained an angry scream at that vision, and forced herself to fly faster, trying to conceal her presence until the last moment. Lalonde was following her example, staying just behind Vriska.

Makara turned back towards Kanaya, clearly deciding that she was the only danger now after knocking out the other two. However, before he could take more than two steps in the direction of the rainbow drinker, red and blue psionics surrounded him and sent him crashing into a wall. 

Captor stood up, then, bruised but conscious and clearly furious. He used his psionics to throw Makara to the ground, and back to the wall again a couple of times in a vicious way. Finally, his bleeding body was kept against the wall, hanging in the air. Judging by the deformation in the wall around the purple blood, it was clear that Captor’s psionics were putting considerable strength into crushing Makara into it.

“Sollux, wait!” Lalonde yelled, just reaching him. “We need him alive!”

Vriska took a last look at Makara, still restrained, and flew straight to where Terezi was getting up from the ground.

“Vris! You’re alive!” Terezi exclaimed when she saw her, grabbing her cane from the ground and reaching towards Vriska. “I thought…”

“I’m fine Tezi,” she rushed to her friend’s side. “I’m immortal, remember? Sorry for the delay, though. You ok?”

“Don’t give me that crap!” her friend complained and knocked lightly on Vriska’s head. “You never replied to Sollux’s memo, and he didn’t see you in his vision so we had no idea if you were alive or dead! And you are only conditionally immortal, hence you can totally die!”

“I was unconscious, okay?!” she yelled, patting away Terezi’s prongs. “I left a very interesting dream bubble to rush back into consciousness!” Vriska protested before deciding to change tactics. “Why? Were you worried about me, Ms. Legislacerator?”

“Shut up,” Terezi growled. “We don’t have time for role-playing now.”

Right, they still had a crazy clown to subdue. Vriska turned back to where Makara was still being held against the wall, his face becoming more and more purple coloured as he asphyxiated. Near them, Captor was still focused on the clown, with a murderous expression in his face and totally ignoring Lalonde rambling next to him.

“Sollux, let him go,” she heard Lalonde say. “I got him, I promise, but we need him alive or we will be doomed. You know better than anyone else what that means.”

Vriska looked back to the human and found Lalonde sending her a meaningful look. Right, it was her turn. She readied herself to mind-control Captor into letting Makara go, but at the last moment she doubted. 

Was she being manipulated again? Was Lalonde playing her like white text guy had done?

“I don’t fucking care!” Captor yelled then, his psionics going a bit wilder and pushing everyone a few steps further from him, while Makara was trying to push away the psionics blocking his airways with his bare prongs without any success. “You don’t know what he was doing to Karkat when we got here! He was papping him! Without his consent!”

Oh, right, he had done that before in Vriska’s block too. Now she understood why someone like Captor would kill an old friend. And why Kanaya, and especially Terezi, went along with it. Consent was a tricky subject for trolls, even and especially between kismesis. Among all the quadrants, kismessisitude was the most probable to cause accidental and not so accidental injuries. It was kind of the point, actually, for some trolls more than others. Fights over control and humiliation plays were common in the black quadrant, but a kismesis wasn’t supposed to actually kill or seriously maim their partner. 

To ensure it didn’t happen by accident, most trolls had safe words or other methods to ensure that both of them were alright with the situation. It was supposed to be a last resort. Forcing a kismesis to use their safe word was actually considered a failure in the perpetrator, and it was a typical cause of broken spades. Having his pitch crush consent violated, even if it was in another quadrant, was probably too much for Captor to forgive.

“We will make sure he never tries something like that again,” added Lalonde. “But you have to let him go now, Sollux, or you would suffocate him.”

“He had escaped twice already!” he protested, furious. “What makes you think he won’t find another way?! Do you really expect me to let him go after Karkat or any of us again?!” 

“This is certainly a serious offense,” Terezi nodded. “If we were still in Alternia, he would have already been sentenced and hung up.”

“We should have killed him long ago,” Kanaya added with a cold voice from where she was still standing behind Vriska. “I have been warning you all from the beginning.”

Lalonde looked at Vriska again, pointingly signaling her to act. Vriska however still doubted if she should do as the human told her. She didn’t think that Lalonde would lie to her about this, but she had been so sure before too, never realising she was being manipulated until it was too late.

How could she know for sure?

Then, she remembered being in a dream bubble resembling Terezi’s forest, sitting with her in the grass and her friend ordering her to check it with her next time she were to do something stupid. Fuck, that was really pale, right? Nubhorn had been right. She forced herself to turn towards Terezi and ask the embarrassing question.

“Terezi, I need a favour,” she said.

“Has to be precisely now?” Terezi asked back, confused.

“It’s now or never,” Vriska insisted. “Lalonde asked me to mind-control Sollux to stop him before he killed Makara. She said that if I didn’t, we’ll be doomed,” she explained as quickly as possible. “But now I don’t know if she was trying to manipulate me. You told me to ask you before doing anything stupid, so I’m asking. Should I do it?”

Terezi expresion changed into a serious one and she put a prong on Vriska’s forehead. A teal-coloured light appeared on Terezi’s thinkpan and, for a moment, Vriska could have sworn it looked like the sign for the Mind aspect but it faded almost instantly.

“Do it!” Terezi nodded. “Now!”

Vriska didn’t need to be told twice. She looked back at Lalonde and nodded at her, a sign for the human to be ready to do her part. Then, she focused her mind-powers on Captor and when she found resistance she stole a bit of his luck, just enough to let her consciousness in his sponge. Vriska ignored the sharp anger mixed with fear that rose in Captor’s mind when he realised she was there and focused on the part of his sponge that controlled his psionics. 

Controlling other troll’s mental powers was always tricky and Vriska tried to avoid it if possible, especially in the case of a strong mind like Captor’s. Tavros’ powers had always been easy to control because he was weak-minded, but the rest of their friends were harder. She had never managed to control Aradia or Terezi, and only succeeded in controlling Sollux’s mind sometimes, so she didn’t have a lot of practice with his psionics. For this reason, instead of manually controlling Captor’s psionics, she sent the orders to _‘let Makara go”_ and _‘stay still’_.

As planned, Makara’s body fell to the ground, gasping desperately for air, and Vriska saw Lalonde aiming at him with her wand, ready to subdue him with her powers. However, in those few instants, Makara managed to throw his broken club directly towards Lalonde and the human had to divert her power to stop it, breaking her concentration momentarily.

“Wrong decision!” screamed Terezi, jumping forward and attacking Makara.

The taller troll grabbed the sword attacking him with his bare prong, not caring about cutting himself in the process, and pulled Terezi closer, unbalancing her. He raised his other prong, still with a club on it, clearly intending to smash Terezi to the ground. Vriska tried to extend her power to control Makara too, desperate to stop him, but she couldn’t do it without letting go of Captor first and that would take time if she didn’t want to uttery shred his sponge apart in the process. There was nothing she could do.

“ **WHAT THE FUCK?!** ” there was a new, grave voice in the block, a voice that Vriska had only heard once before and, like that time, gave her goosebumps. “ **EVERYONE STOP, RIGHT NOW!** ”

Vriska’s body froze even before she had processed the order, keeping her still on the spot. In front of her, Makara’s body had also completely stopped, with his club centimetres away from Terezi’s back. His eyes were huge and showed fear, stress, and something that almost resembled guilt. Vriska understood the feeling perfectly. There was something in the disappointment and anger in the new voice that was twisting Vriska’s insides.

“ **WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, TEREZI?! GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE!** ” the voice ordered again. “ **WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, PEOPLE?! I’M OUT FOR A FEW MOMENTS AND HERE YOU ALL ARE, TRYING TO KILL EACH OTHER! AGAIN!** ” Vriska’s abdominal sausages were getting more and more twisted with each disappointed word and she felt a desperate feeling climbing up her back. “ **AND WHO THE FUCK HIT MY HEAD, THIS TIME?!** ”

In front of her, Terezi was crawling away from Makara, stopping a moment to smell in his direction with confusion on her face. The purple blood had not moved an inch. Much like Vriska, he was frozen on the spot and, judging by the desperate look on his eyes, he was also feeling as guilty and ashamed as her. Maybe even more.

“It was me!” Makara confessed in a rush with clear regret in his voice and still keeping his body motionless in the same position. “I’m the one that hit your head! I’m so sorry!”

“Wait, what?!” Vriska heard Terezi whisper from her side, where her friend had just moved to. “Crazy Makara, apologizing?”

“What’s going on here?” Lalonde also asked.

Vriska barely restrained her urge to shush them, afraid of further disappointing the voice. But if she did that, she would be doing something and contradicting the voice’s previous order, right? She didn’t want to disobey and disappoint the author of the voice, so she stood still and kept her voice restrained.

“ **IT WAS A RHETORICAL QUESTION, STUPID! I ALREADY KNEW IT WAS YOU,** ” the voice continued, clearly annoyed with Makara. Vriska almost felt pity for him. “ **STRIDER?! FUCK, DON’T BE DEAD, ASSPRICK!** ”

There was some movement on Vriska’s left, out of her sight, but she didn’t dare move. She didn’t know if she would even be able to move if she wanted to. Not that she did! No, the nice voice had told her to stop and that was what she was doing. Stopping everything. 

Should she stop breathing, too?

“Is my brother alright, Karkat?” Lalonde asked, again talking without permission.

“ **YEAH, HE’S BREATHING. I THINK HE’S FINE,** ” the voice said with a clear relief that brought a shiver to Vriska’s posture pole. “ **CAN SOMEBODY EXPLAIN TO ME WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING HERE?! NOT YOU, GAMZEE, DON’T EVEN TRY!** ” it kept saying, alternating between a confused and an angry tone that made Vriska’s sponge twirl. “ **AND WHAT ARE YOU FUCKING DOING?! DROP THAT NASTY CLUB ALREADY, DUMBASS!** ”

The sound of a heavy object hitting the ground sounded in the quiet block when Makara let his weapon fall to the ground. Next to Vriska, Terezi touched her arm, sending more goosebumps through her body.

“Vris?” she heard Terezi call her but she didn’t dare move to answer.

“ **WHAT THE FUCK?! KANAYA? WHY ARE YOU SO STILL?** ” Vriska heard the voice again, this time talking directly to Kanaya. She tried to not feel jealous and failed. “ **TALK TO ME KANAYA! TELL ME WHAT’S WRONG!** ”

“Can I move?” Kanaya’s voice asked in a soft tone. “You said _‘stop’_ and I didn’t want to assume, so my body stopped.”

“ **THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! OF COURSE YOU CAN MOVE!** ” the voice replied. “ **WHEN I SAID** **_‘STOP’_ ** **I MEANT ‘** **_STOP FIGHTING’_ ** **, NOT** **_‘STAY COMPLETELY STILL LIKE A STUPID STATUE’_ ** **! AND SINCE WHEN YOU DO WHAT I SAY?!** ”

Just like that, Vriska’s body was suddenly hers again. All the tension from keeping herself in the same position for so long disappeared and she staggered to the side. Terezi’s grab on her arm was the only thing that kept Vriska from falling to the ground. Judging by the sound and groan near her, Makara hadn’t been so lucky.

“Don’t move, Gamzee,” Lalonde warned him but Makara was too busy looking pity-stuck at something towards Vriska’s left.

Realising that it was the direction the voice had come from, she rushed to look as well and was astonished at what she saw. Next to Kanaya was the most pitiable creature that Vriska had ever seen before. A short troll with messy black hair, the smallest, nubbest and cutest horns she had ever seen, and huge expressive eyes in a face with a permanent frown. Vriska sighed, she wished she could grab that troll and hug him for all eternity.

“What the fuck, Vris?!” she heard a familiar voice growl near to her. “Why are you looking at Karkat like that?!”

Karkat, Karkat, wait, Karkat Vantas? No, that was wrong. That lovely creature wasn’t Karkat. Vantas was a bigmouthed, rude as fuck, arrogant weakling with stupid leadership aspirations that was always in Vriska’s way, yelling and screaming until she did what he asked or mind-controlled him into being quiet. Nothing to do with the vision in front of her eyes. No, that troll couldn’t be Karkat. She turned towards Terezi to tell her how wrong she was.

“You’re wrong Tezi,” Vriska told her with a smile. “That cutie isn’t Vantas.”

“Cutie?!” her friend exclaimed. “Who are you and what have you done to Vriska Serket?!”

“Shoosh,” she whispered, her eyes turning back towards the nice troll.

He was talking with Kanaya in a voice too low for Vriska to hear but judging by the jade-blooded pity-struck expression it was something good. Vriska tried to not feel jealous when the adorable troll smiled softly at Kanaya, but she failed. That was totally not faaaaaaaair! Vriska was good too, she was the best of all of them! Just then, cutie-troll papped Kanaya’s cheek, just once, and the girl fell over with a happy sigh, barely caught up in time by the shorter troll.

“ **WO, WO, WO! KANAYA?!** ” he exclaimed, somehow holding up the much taller girl. “ **THE FUCK?!** ”

“What happened?!” Lalonde asked, her eyes anxiously going from Makara to the jade-blooded girl. “Is Kanaya alright?”

“ **I DON’T KNOW, SHE JUST PASSED OUT,** ” cutie-troll explained while slowing the girl to the ground. “ **IT LOOKS ALMOST… BUT NO, IT DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE!** ”

“I think you should stop talking, Karkat,” Terezi interrupted. “There’s something weird with your voice, it feels strange.”

“ **WHAT?! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH MY VOICE?!** ” he said, leaving Kanaya resting near Strider and walking towards them. “ **IF THAT’S YOUR WAY TO TELL ME TO SHUT UP, YOU CAN SAVE IT TEREZI! NOW, WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING HERE?!** ” he asked again. “ **THE LAST THING I REMEMBER IS GAMZEE HERE ATTACKING US, AGAIN! WE SERIOUSLY NEED TO PUT HIM ON RESTRAINS OR SOMETHING BECAUSE THIS KEEPS HAPPENING!** ”

“You have spent too much time with Dave if you are using his puns now,” Terezi accused him. “But seriously, shut up Karkat! You are giving me a migraine!”

“ **THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!** ” cutie-troll growled with an adorable pout. “ **I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH FUCKING STRIDER!** ”

“I sure hope not,” Lalonde said with a raised eyebrow and a malicious smile. “Nobody is fucking my brother until at least the third date.”

“ **OH, FUCK OFF LALONDE! YOU KNOW WHAT I MEANT!** ”

Vriska looked at the casual bickering around her astonished. She didn’t know how Terezi and Lalonde could even look at that charming troll in the eye without melting, imagine even talking to him! She was as nervous as a pathetic grub with its first pale-crush, and by the astonished, watery glint in Makara’s eyes, he was feeling even more overwhelmed than her.

“ **WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU CRYING, GAMZEE?! AFTER THE STUNT YOU PULLED BEFORE, YOU ARE LUCKY IF I DON’T TIE YOU AND LEFT YOU HANGING BACK FROM THE METEOR AS A TREAT TO JACK!** ” he yelled only to get a pitiful whimper from the clown. “ **FUCK! THIS IS LIKE KICKING A HURT BARKBEAST!** ”

“I think that Terezi is right, Karkat,” Lalonde said then, pensive. “Your voice seems to be having a strange effect on the rest of the members of your race.”

“ **THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? SURE, VRISKA AND GAMZEE ARE ACTING WEIRD. MAYBE EVEN KANAYA. BUT TEREZI AND SOLLUX ARE FINE, RIGHT?** ” cutie-troll said and turned towards the gold-blood that was still in the same position. “ **SOLLUX? WHY IS HE NOT MOVING? WHAT IS WRONG WITH HIM?!** ”

Vriska knew what was wrong with Captor: he was still under Vriska’s control. She had meant to release him just after Makara was subdued but she had been distracted. Maybe she should release him now but, before that, she felt the strong impulse to confess the truth to cutie-troll.

A part of her realised that it was a bad idea, that the nice troll would be angry with her if he knew, but something was urging her to talk, to help him in any way she could. Maybe if she were truthful, he would appreciate it and be nice to her?

“I’m mind-controlling Captor to stay still,” she confessed, incapable of restraining herself.

Her stupid hope of being rewarded by her honesty was crushed the moment that cutie-troll looked back at her with furious anger in his eyes. She had fucked up, she had fucked up bad this time.

“ **HOW YOU FUCKING DARE, SERKET?!** ” was his furious scream. “ **LET SOLLUX GO RIGHT NOW, YOU CRAZY PSYCHOPATH!** ”

Vriska let go of Sollux’s mind almost instantaneously, at the same time that a dark, cold sensation clouded her sponge. Her previous elation and almost happiness completely disappeared and transformed into a crushing, overwhelming sensation that was overtaking her full body quickly. 

She had failed again, she had hurt one of her friends and angered this nice troll. She was bad, so bad, there was no hope for her anymore. She was only capable of disappointing, hurting, and betraying everyone. Nobody pitied or loved her and nobody ever will. 

Who could even care for someone like her?

There wasn’t even anyone that hated her in the way she craved so much. She was useless, undesirable, unwanted. If she were to disappear right now, to jump away into paradox space and be lost by all eternity, nobody would care. Nobody would look for her. She was better gone.

“ **VRISKA!** ”

Someone shook her and brought Vriska back from the black desperate hole she had somehow fallen into. She looked around and noticed that she was laying on the ground in a fetal position, with Terezi and the nice troll in their knees next to her and everyone else looking down on her with surprised expressions. Even Strider was there now, looking completely lost. There was something wet in Vriska’s face and when she touched her cheek, she was surprised to find blue tears there.

When was the last time that Vriska had cried? Actually cried because of emotional distress and not physical pain?

Fuck, she was even weaker than she thought. She was truly a disappointment, wasn’t she? A complete failure of a troll. 

“Oh no! Don’t you dare pass out on me again, Vriska!” she heard Terezi calling her. “Stay with me, okay? Karkat has something to say to you.”

Vriska forced herself to concentrate on Terezi, her dear friend Tezi. Maybe even her moirail? 

“ **HEY, SERKET,** ” the special voice said to her, immediately capturing all of Vriska’s attention. “ **SO, LALONDE AND TEREZI EXPLAINED THE SITUATION. ALL THAT STUFF ABOUT ASKING FOR YOUR HELP IN STOPPING STUPID SOLLUX FROM KILLING GAMZEE AND DOOMING ALL OF US.** ”

“Oi, fuck you too!” Captor complained, from somewhere out of Vriska’s sight. “If you don’t want me to come to rescue your skinny ass, KK, then don’t let yourself be kidnapped like a fucking damsel in distress!”

“ **FIRST OF ALL, THIS IS A PRIVATE CONVERSATION BETWEEN ME AND SERKET NOOKLICKER! IF YOU ARE SO DESPERATE FOR ME TO YELL AT YOU, WAIT FOR YOUR FUCKING TURN!** ” cutie-troll turned to scream at Captor, who surprisingly didn’t seem to be affected by the anger in his voice. “ **SECONDLY, I DIDN’T ASK FOR YOUR HELP, I HAD EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL!** ”

“My bulge you had it under control!” Captor replied.

“ **AND, FINALLY,** ” adorable-troll interrupted him. “ **MY POSTERIOR PARTS ARE PERFECTLY PROPORTIONATE TO THE REST OF MY BODY!** ”

“Ehehehe,” Captor laughed. “You know what they say: short troll, large…”

“That’s enough information, thanks!” Lalonde interrupted. “We had a similar saying in my world, I think we all get it.”

“Strut pod, I was going to say strut pod,” Captor smiled maliciously at the human. “What were you thinking, Lalonde?”

“That was exactly what I had in mind, too,” she answered with the same type of smile. “I told you we had the same exact sentence in my world.”

“Wtf is a _‘strut pod’_?” Strider whispered, at what Lalonde showed him stepping on his.

“Can we focus, everyone?!” Terezi exclaimed, dragging Vriska even closer to her side. “We were doing something important here!”

“ **RIGHT, SORRY,** ” cutie-troll said again before kneeling next to Vriska. “ **SO, AS I WAS SAYING, THERE’S SOMETHING WEIRD IN MY VOICE THAT’S MESSING UP WITH YOUR SPONGE, SOMEHOW. BECAUSE OF COURSE THERE WERE NEW WAYS IN WHICH TO BE A WEIRDO THAT I STILL HADN’T EXPLORED YET!** ” he explained. “ **IN ANY CASE, I SHOULDN’T HAVE YELLED AT YOU BEFORE, I’M SORRY.** ”

Vriska blinked, confused. That didn’t make sense. Cutie-troll hadn’t done anything wrong, it was all Vriska’s fault. She was the one that had mind-controlled Captor and disturbed cutie-troll. He had all the reasons in the world to be angry at her. She was bad, horribly bad.

“But I’m bad,” she said aloud. “I’m a bad troll and I made you angry. You shouldn’t apologize, it was all my fault.”

“Stop saying bullshit like that, Vriska!” Terezi nagged at her, hugging her against her side. “You didn’t do anything wrong!”

“But I did,” Vriska insisted, sure in her core that it was true. “I made cutie-troll angry, so I’m a bad troll.”

It was a simple math problem in her head, cutie-troll got mad because of something that she had done, so she was bad. See? Easy. She didn’t understand why the rest couldn’t see it.

“ **THE FUCK?!** ” nice-troll exclaimed. “ **STOP FUCKING LAUGHING, SOLLUX! THIS IS NOT FUNNY!** ”

“Sure, whatever you say, cutie-troll!” Captor said before breaking into full belly-laughs again. “This is precious! I’ll never let her forget this!”

“As comically disturbing as this may be, I believe that we have a problem,” Lalonde commented. “It seems that whatever Karkat did would not be as easy as we thought to undo. No, Karkat, don’t speak, for now. We don’t want you to make the situation worse unintentionally.”

“It’s like they are taking everything he says literally,” Terezi commented. “Both Gamzee and Kanaya reacted similarly, but why are me and Sollux immune?”

Vriska stopped listening to the debate and burrowed herself more into Terezi’s warm side. They didn’t need her anyway and Terezi’s shoulder was comfortable. The more she focused on her friend, the more relaxed she felt. Soon, she was almost falling asleep on her. A prong shaking her by her shoulder brought her back from her drowsiness. She looked up and saw the nice-looking troll still in front of her.

“ **VRISKA, I WANT YOU TO LISTEN TO ME CAREFULLY,** ” he said to her. “ **I’M NOT ANGRY AT YOU ANYMORE, NOW I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU DID THE RIGHT THING WHEN YOU MIND-CONTROLLED SOLLUX.** ”

“Oh,” Vriska sighed, feeling the negative emotions in her sponge finally disappear. “Really?”

“ **YES, REALLY, YOU DID THE RIGHT THING,** ” the troll insisted and put a tentative prong on her shoulder. “ **I’M NOT GOING TO SAY THAT YOU ARE ALL GOOD BECAUSE NOBODY IS ONLY GOODNESS, BUT YOU ARE OUR FRIEND VRISKA SERKET,** **AND YOU ARE PERFECT AS YOU ARE.** ”

Just like that, all anxiousness and doubt evaporated from Vriska’s mind, leaving her with the sensation of floating in a pleasurable cloud. Suddenly, she was herself again and, even when the troll in front of her still looked crazy cute, he was a bit more Vantas-like. She began laughing softly.

“Vris?” Terezi asked.

“Of course I’m fucking perfect, losers!” she exclaimed, happy. “So nice of you to finally recognise it.”

There was a collective exasperated sigh around Vriska and she smiled satisfied. She was still next to Terezi and she was feeling great, better than ever before. Vriska pressed her face against her friend’s shirt and sniffed her familiar smell. Spices, chalk and something that was only Terezi.

“Can you do that again, KK?” she heard Captor ask. “I liked zombie-Serket better.”

“Go to hell, Captor,” Vriska said from her resting place, not even a bit annoyed.

“Okay, now that this situation is settled, we should do something about Gamzee,” Lalonde said then. “I have an idea but I will need your help Karkat. No, don’t say anything yet, we should move away from Vriska's earshot first.”

With that, everyone left Vriska and Terezi alone. Vriska didn’t care, she was perfectly fine where she was, with her best friend petting her hair. Could anything be better than this?

“Are you purring on me, Serket?” Terezi asked with amusement in her voice. “I didn’t know you were even capable of it.”

“Mmmm?” groaned Vriska, feeling drowsy again. “Why wouldn’t I be purring when I have my moirail petting my hair?”

It felt amazing, so Vriska was a bit disappointed when Terezi’s fingers stopped. She let go a complaining soft sound and the petting resumed. Vriska closed her eyes again, everything was perfect.

“Your moirail?” Terezi’s voice awoke her again.

“You, silly,” Vriska laughed a bit at Terezi’s stupid question and hugged her arm. “Thanks for helping me before, Tezi.”

Under her, she could sense Terezi’s hotter body temperature, a lot higher than Vriska’s. It was shooting her further in her sleep.

“No problem,” she heard Terezi say. “Thanks for asking me.”

Vriska yawned, her body heavy and strangely tired. 

“Pity you,” Vriska said before finally falling asleep

* * *

From the moment she awoke that night, Vriska’s thinkpan was killing her. Even the smallest sound made her wish for a quick, merciful death and the one time she dared open her eyes the light almost blinded her. She groaned and pulled herself further down into her coon.

“Oh! You’re finally awake!” 

Vriska groaned and tried to hush Terezi without further aggravating her migraine. She raised a prong out of the sopor, trying to find the lid to her recuperacoon by touch without actually opening her eyes until something sat on her prong. She groaned again. Vriska didn’t remember the last time she had felt so bad, if ever.

“Come on, stop being such a wiggler!” she heard Terezi’s voice again. “Here, drink this. Kanaya says it helps.”

Reluctantly, Vriska emerged from the sopor and had to cover her eyes to protect them from the burning light in the block.

“Why is so fucking bright in here?!” she complained. “How can there be any light inside a rock floating in space?!”

“Are you really asking me?” Terezi laughed. “It’s nicely dark for me.”

Vriska forced herself to open one of her eyes just enough to grab the glass that her friend was offering to her. She quickly drank it fully, trying to not gag at the horrible taste, and let the glass fall without caring even a little of where it ended up.

“Uuuurgh,” she almost threw back the horrible drink. “What the fuck was that?!”

“Hangover remedy!” Terezi answered, cheery. “Don’t worry, Kanaya said it works fast. She took it too a couple of hours ago and now she’s completely fine!”

“Hangover? I’m not hungover!” Vriska replied. “I don’t even drink Faygo!”

“Not that kind of hangover,” was Terezi’s cheerful answer. “You, my friend, have a pale-hangover!”

A pale-hangover. _Pale_ -hangover?! No way, that was impossible! There was only one way to get one of those and it was when waking up after a pale coma. And as sure as Vriska was the best troll ever that she never would have let anyone pap her into unconsciousness!! 

First of all, that kind of intense pale touching rubbed her in the wrong way. Second, she would have to let her guard completely down, which was a clear no. It was too dangerous. And finally, only idiots overindulged like that! 

Sure, the rush of pheromones was said to be almost as good as pailing, but a troll’s sponge was not made to feel that good. So, horrible pale-hangover the following morning one hundred per cent guaranteed. It was foolish.

“I can’t have a pale-hangover!” Vriska pouted. “You’re lying!”

“And you’re smelling worse than a perigee-dead cheese critter!” Terezi argued back. “No explanations until you have taken a shower!”

With that and a lot of bickering, Terezi forced her into the ablutionblock. A shower sounded like a good idea so Vriska undressed and stepped into the ablution trap. Terezi had stayed outside, respecting Vriska’s privacy, but she was probably still close enough to hear her so Vriska asked her questions.

“So, care to explain what happened yesterday?” she said. “My memory is blurry.”

She cleaned her hair first, being extremely careful to not rub her pan too hard and increase her pan-ache. It was hurting less by the minute, Kanaya’s remedy must have really been effective.

“What is the last thing you remember?” she heard Terezi’s muted voice.

“I was in the War Block with Karkat, discussing his Aspect,” Vriska began.

The memory of the short troll asking her if Terezi was her moirail made her stumble for a moment, dropping the shower gel. Sighing, she squatted down carefully and recovered it.

“Is that all?” Terezi insisted.

“No, wait, let me think,” Vriska replied. “We heard a horn, well, honking. KrabKat insisted that Makara might be dying there so we decided to take a look.”

She stepped under the hot water while she forced her pan to remember what happened after that. A horn under her strut pod, Makara awakening and attacking them.

“Fucker!” she yelled in frustration. “The bastard tricked us! He put his stupid horns on the ground so when I stepped in one of them, he woke up and attacked us!” she rushed out of the ablution trap and began drying herself with a blue towel. 

“He knocked Karkat out and kept breaking my bones as if it was a fucking game to him!” she shouted, furious. “In the end, he knocked me out and…”

Oh. The dream bubble. Meeting Neophyte Redglare, or more exactly Latula Pyrope. Vriska put on a cerulean ablutionrobe, tied it tightly and rushed to open the door to the respiteblock. Terezi must have been sitting just in front of the door with her back resting on the door because she fell back in front of Vriska’s strut pods when she opened it.

“Whoa!” the teal blood girl yelled. “Couldn’t you have warned me before doing that?”

“Vriska, I met your ancestor,” Vriska said, still a bit in shock. “I met Neophyte Redglare, she is real, Terezi! All of our ancestors are real!”

Her friend looked up at her from the ground with her blind eyes and her mouth open in shock. Soon, she incorporated and pulled Vriska back into her repiteblock, leading her to sit in her loungeplank.

“What are you talking about, Vris?” she asked her then, completely serious.

“Makara knocked me out and I was in a dream bubble, in an old memory,” Vriska explained, deciding to omit exactly which memory. “At first I didn’t realise I was in a dream bubble. I was talking to you but suddenly the conversation felt repetitive as if I had it before.”

“Yeah, sometimes it’s hard to tell you are dreaming,” Terezi agreed. “I guess you noticed it eventually.”

“Yes, and then, your quirk changed and I was not talking to you anymore, but someone else,” she explained. “She said that her name was Latula Pyrope and that we are a scratched version of her session.”

“Wait, a scratched version?” her friend repeated. “Like what the humans did in theirs?!”

“Yes, exactly!” Vriska nodded. “I didn’t talk to her long because she was fucking annoying and a complete hypocrite, so I shut her down fast, but I got some general idea,” she explained. “It turns out that Alternia had a different name before, Beforus, and it was a peaceful place without lusii, crazy highbloods, or even culling!”

“That’s impossible,” Terezi protested, as if it was too hard for her to process a world like that, Vriska completely understood.

“I’m serious!” Vriska insisted. “She said that there were adults on the planet raising the grubs, that culling meant that you were adopted by a highblood and spoiled rotten, and that the worst thing that could happen to them was that they had to be careful not to offend someone!”

“No way!” her friend exclaimed. “If their world was so perfect, what the fuck happened?!”

“They were a group of weaklings and lost the game, that’s what happened!” Vriska exclaimed and stood up, she needed to move. “As expected, they messed badly in the game, I don’t know the details because I was in a rush to go back to the meteor. The fact is that they were complete losers and couldn’t win, so they decided to scratch the game, just like the humans did,” she began walking in circles. “Somehow they avoided being erased by the scratch but, in the new version they grow up to be our ancestors and Alternia become what we knew.”

In a sense, everything that had gone wrong in Vriska’s life could be blamed on the previous generation, right? If they had not fucked up, Vriska could have been hatched in their peaceful version of Alternia. She wouldn’t have had her fucked up lusus, and she wouldn’t have been forced to grow up the way she did. 

But, if everything had been different, would Vriska have been Vriska then? Or a completely different troll?

“What about us?” Terezi asked. “If they were our ancestors after the scratch, wouldn’t that mean that we were theirs before it?”

“I don’t know,” Vriska confessed. “I didn’t ask, I was too angry at her to ask.”

“Oh, what happened?” her friend asked. “What did she say?”

“She was spitting bullshit about how more _‘radical’_ and _‘awesome’_ Alternia was compared to her boring and lame planet,” she explained. “She was a fucking hypocrite. She even said that having murderous lusii was _‘rad’_!

“Ouch, what a stupid thing to say,” Terezi grimaced. “She was probably a ghost, they are all fucked up,” she shrugged. “Anyway, think about it: if instead of the Condesce, Feferi had been our Empress, what kind of place would Alternia had been?”

Oh, yeah, that made sense. Feferi Peixes was surprisingly chill and peaceful for a fuchsia-blooded heiress. She was a nice troll that didn’t care at all about the hemospectrum and just wanted everyone to be friends and happy. Yeah, if she had been the Empress, Vriska could totally see Alternia being a peaceful and boring planet. Such a shame she was dead.

“That would explain it, I guess,” Vriska agreed and sat down again. “Well, Pyrope The First said that we would eventually reach their dream bubble, so we could ask her then.

“We should make a list,” Terezi smiled. “Anyway, what happened after you woke up?”

“Lalonde was there, she told me that Captor was going to kill Makara and doom us all in the process and that I was the only one that could stop him,” she explained. “I could barely move because Makara broke my strut sticks, so I convinced Lalonde to kill me.”

“WHAT?!” her friend yelled and began punching her in her arm. “Since when do you go around asking people to kill you?!”

“Oi, stop it!” Vriska protested, trying to get out of Terezi’s reach. “She didn’t want to at first, okay? Said that it could be Heroic, but I managed to convince her that it was impossible!”

“That doesn’t make it better, Vriska!” Terezi kept yelling, moving closer presumably to continue punching her.

“Well, it worked okay?!” Vriska said, once she finally managed to grab Terezi’s arms and push her away. “I’m here, right? So, cool down.”

“I’m still angry,” the teal-blooded girl pouted but seemed to calm down. “But I will let it go for now. Do you remember the fight with Gamzee?”

Vriska tried to remember. Makara hitting Captor and Terezi away, Captor grabbing him with his psionics, Vriska stopping him and Gamzee trying to attack Lalonde, only to have Terezi intervening at the last moment.

“I stopped Captor and Makara attacked you!” she exclaimed. “You fucking hypocrite! He almost smashed you into the ground and you are nagging at me for an inconsequential death?!” Vriska growled, furious. “You are mortal, Terezi! You can’t attack an out-of-his-mind fucking purple blood like that!”

“I knew the consequences of my actions before doing them,” Terezi shrugged. “I knew that I wouldn’t die, even if I didn’t know why.”

Right, the strange voice that got into Vriska’s sponge and made her feel weird things. She remembered watching Karkat Vantas and finding him pitiful to the point that her sponge couldn’t recognise him anymore.

“What the fuck did Vantas do to my sponge?!” she exclaimed. “I felt so weird, and I remember looking at him and thinking that he was someone else! He forced me to feel pity for him!”

“Yeah, your cutie-troll!” Terezi cracked. “That part was hilarious.”

“Shut up, I never called him that,” Vriska groaned, even when that exact memory came back to her. “I don’t know what he did to me but he made me feel like shit. For a moment there I was somehow sure that I was worthless, that if I had jumped out of the meteor and got lost, nobody would have come after me. That nobody would have cared.”

“I would,” Terezi said softly, a small pitiful sound coming from her chest. “I would have looked for you, Vriska.”

“Oh,” she replied stupidly, aware for the first time that they were close, really close. She felt her face getting colder. “So, I guess I passed out? What happened with Makara?”

“Lalonde had an idea after seeing how Karkat's voice affected you,” her friend replied. “He made Gamzee swear on the Dark Carnival and his crazy messiahs that he won’t attack, kill, or hurt physically or psychically anyone in the meteor, or try to stop us from reaching the next session in any way.”

“That’s it?” Vriska asked. “What happened next? Did you put him back in the block in my section?”

“No, Karkat let him go and told him to try to stay out of sight,” Terezi shrugged. “I know what you are going to say and it was the best option, both Lalonde and I agreed on that.”

“You are both wrong, then!” she yelled, incredulous. “You let Gamzee Makara run freely in the meteor after he had proved again and again that he’s a crazy murderer clown that can’t be trusted for a single moment?! What were you thinking, Terezi?!” Vriska exclaimed, raising her prongs to the sky. “He’s probably free of whatever Karkat did to us already! He can come back for us at any moment!”

“No, he won’t, trust me in this,” her friend insisted. “Gamzee is a fanatic religious and he swore over his gods, he won’t break that oath. I know that for sure, I checked it before letting him go,” Terezi told her. “Also, Sollux was right, keeping him in your section clearly wasn’t functioning and it’s not fair to you. It was too dangerous.”

“So now we are all in the same level of danger, I hope you are fine with that!” she yelled. “I will haunt him down and bring him back to his cell again, even if I have to do it alone!”

“Don’t worry, Sollux and Kanaya weren’t exactly happy with letting him go, either,” the teal-blooded girl smiled. “I’m sure they would like to go clown-hunting with you. But I doubt you would be able to catch him.”

“I will, you’ll see!” Vriska decided.

Terezi only laughed and shrugged, as if she already knew the end of the story. Seers were so fucking annoying sometimes!

“So, there is something I need to know,” Terezi commented in an indifferent tone but with her face turned away from Vriska. “Do you remember what you said to me just before you fell asleep?

She didn’t even have to think about it, the memory had already come back to her with the rest of the Karkat situation. Vriska had called Terezi her moirail and she had told her that she pitied her. Vriska had hoped that Terezi would not bring it up but she was clearly out of luck lately. She should steal some soon.

Vriska swallowed and thought of her options. She could lie and say that she didn’t remember or that she hadn’t meant it. Or she could be honest. She looked at her friend, Terezi was sitting on Vriska’s side with their arms touching. Somehow invading her personal space without being too invasive or having Vriska caring at all for the first time in her life. Vriska inhaled deeply and made a decision.

“Yes,” she replied.

“And, did you mean it?” Terezi asked again, still hiding her face from Vriska’s eyes.

“Yes,” Vriska repeated. “I still do.”

“Oh!” her friend exclaimed softly before becoming silent again.

Vriska forced herself to not say anything else and give Terezi some time to decide what to do next. She wanted to laugh it off and go back to their usual friendly banter, scared of losing the only friend she still had. In the end, she couldn’t stand the silence any longer.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to be my moirail,” Vriska forced herself to say. “I understand.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to,” Terezi replied in a soft voice. “I never had a moirail, it was always only my lusus and me. I don’t know how to be a moirail.”

“You’ve been doing great until now,” she rushed to say, turning towards Terezi. “Nothing has to change, we can just keep doing what we had already been doing. Apparently, everyone thought we were already in a moirallegiance.”

Terezi finally looked up at Vriska again, a confused and almost scared expression on her face. At that moment, she looked like the most pitiable troll that Vriska had ever seen before. Even more than Karkat when he did whatever he had done to her. Compared to this, his mental tricks were as fake as grubsnacks.

“So, everything would be the same?” Terezi asked.

“You already told me to tell you before I did something stupid,” Vriska shrugged. “And you can do the same if you want. Tell me stuff, I mean,” she rambled before sighing and letting her pan fall forward until it rested lightly on Terezi’s shoulder. “Sorry, I’m really bad at this, too.”

“I know, I remember,” her friend laughed. “We are both terrible at this.”

“The worst,” Vriska agreed, smiling. “The terrible, horrible Scourge Sisters.”

Terezi cracked her maniacally laugh at that, finally relaxing. Vriska felt a flutter in her abdominal sausages suspiciously similar to a purr when her friend began petting her hair softly. She coughed slightly and pulled her pan back.

“There’s something you should know, though,” she forced herself to say.

“What is it?” Terezi asked, with clear curiosity.

“I’m not comfortable with physical contact,” Vriska confessed with her eyes focused on her lap. “I mean, what we have been doing so far is fine, nice even. But I can’t be all touchy-free like Karkat and Kanaya.”

“Thanks to the gods for that,” laughed Terezi, at which Vriska raised her pan to look at her. “Those two are really embarrassing to watch. And don’t worry, I’m not like that either, not in the pale quadrant,” she shrugged. “Or at least I don’t think so but what I know, right?”

Vriska sighed at hearing that. It was relieving to hear that Terezi would not expect her to be overly affectionate now, Vriska wasn’t sure if she could have forced herself into it. 

“So, moirails?” she asked again. “The not-overly touchy type of moirails?”

“Okay, let’s try it,” agreed Terezi. “Moirails. The terrible, worst moirails ever.”

Vriska laughed a bit at that, fully understanding what Terezi meant by it, and in a spur of courage, she rested her thinkpan front on her moirail’s. Her moirail. They were like that for a moment before Terezi pulled back again.

“So, I think I should let you dress,” Terezi said with an awkward smile and gesturing to Vriska. “Nothing personal but you’re kind of wearing… “

“Only an ablutionrobe, right,” Vriska felt her face reach under zero temperatures, an unequivocal sign of her embarrassment. “Could you just…?”

“Leave? Thanks to the gods!” her moirail replied. “I mean, yes, I’ll leave. For a moment I thought you would want me to stay and that would have been…”

“Fucking awkward?” she finished with a grimace.

“Fucking awkward,” Terezi confirmed. “Not that kind of moirail, then?”

“Absolutely not,” Vriska said with a shudder. “Need my privacy. You?”

“Same,” her friend answered. 

“Good.”

“Good.”

They looked/smelled at each other and exploded in laughter at the same time. The situation was so absurd that it was completely hilarious.

“I think we will be fine,” Terezi smiled her full-face smile.

“We will be amazing,” Vriska nodded, also smiling.

And, for once, she was not boasting.

* * *


End file.
